by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Today's headlines read "Critics Find Flaws in Firms That Buy Client's Annuities" and "Ethical Issues Cloud Buying of Settlements". These headlines appear in an article, written by Gabe Friedman on the front pages 1-2 of the Verdicts and Settlements Section of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a publication for lawyers in the Los Angeles area.
"The Courtship of Eddie's Payments" | 22 Year Old New Yorker Attempted to Sell $62,000 in Payments to Peachtree for less than $8,000, to Pay $600 in DMV Fines | Court Denies
The lead part of the story is about Eddie Solivan a 22-year-old unemployed New Yorker (hope you're reading George Pataki, Hilary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Eliot Spitzer & Company) who tried to sell his $62,000 structured settlement annuity payment rights for less than $8,000 (or 13% of its present value), so he could pay the $600 in fines on his driver's license. As cited in the article, in an opinion delivered last summer the trial court stopped the egregious sale of Mr. Solivan's payments to Peachtree settlement Funding, whose Vice-President of Structured Settlements Deborha Benaim is listed at time of publication as a member of the Society of Settlement Planners (SSP), a national nonprofit educational and public policy association of professional structured settlement producers and others who assist injured claimants in the settlement process. At the time of publication, the SSP also counts other factoring companies and buyers of structured settlement payment rights among its members and patrons.
The above case highlights the reasons why I believe that factoring companies do not belong in the settlement planning process and supplements the issues that I continue to publicize in the Structured Settlements 4Real blog.
Today 43 states have passed laws tightening restrictions on who can buy structured settlement payment rights, but is it enough? Allegedly there is some "rubber stamp" decision making by judges out there. The Los Angeles Daily Journal Article also quotes
Judge Edward Wallin, a mediator and owner of JAMS, who recalls a matter in which a father cashed in his daughter' s annuity because he thought he could do better in the stock market (during the dot-com boom) and blew it all.
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