If you go down to Forge today it's a case of "surprise surprise"… NO MORE "equivocated guaranteed return at approximately 15%" structured attorney fee claim! 
About frickin' time. It only took more than a year and a half of blogging and seeking an opinion of the Office of General Counsel at the New York State Insurance Department.
The Forge Consulting web site now states, in part, about structured attorney fees:
"The focus for attorney fees on any case can be negotiated to effectuate tax deferral. Depending on the time of the deferral, the benefit achieved by the deferring attorney is potentially greater than returns available in any other type of investment that is guaranteed. "
To close this out, it is important to note that the issue of tax deferral on structured attorney fees is not simply the matter of negotiation.
Now, if Forge could stop falsely claiming it's the "first major new firm in the structured settlement industry in more than a decade".
While just one company would render the Forge Consulting advertising false, here are just some of the other major firms that began within the decade that Forge Consulting was founded (i.e. prior to or since 2003):
Atlas Settlements
Brant Hickey and Associates
Bradford Settlements
How do you measure what is "major"?
- If its by number of brokers, consultants or offices those 3 companies each beat Forge Consulting hands down.
- If "major" is determined by the amount of advertised financial donations to trial lawyer associations and political campaigns perhaps Forge has a fighting chance.
- If you define "major" as having a Presidential candidate vouch for you professionally when he couldn't possibly have done structured settlement business with you based on the timeline, then perhaps Forge has a fighting chance.
- If you determine "major" in terms of advertising, absolutes and mutual exclusivity, or perhaps better put in this case, "a growing proboscis", then Forge might have been considered "major" for fervently and continually marketing plaintiff exclusivity with concurrent knowledge that 3 of its principals in 2005 (1 in 2006) declared under penalty of perjury that they had substantial experience providing services to defendants in each of the preceding 3 years prior to signing a declaration to the United States Department of Justice, pursuant to CFR 50.24.
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