by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
People who receive structured settlement payments that later sell their structured settlement payment rights may not be completely aware of the impact of such selling transactions (known as factoring) on their privacy. The structured settlement watchdog has already brought up the horrifying story of sibling victims of sex abuse being solicited by a factoring company when only one of the siblings went through the process of selling their structured settlement payment rights.
Now my recent debate partner, Matt Bracy, General Counsel of Settlement Capital Corporation in Dallas, Texas, who also serves as President of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers, addresses privacy in this podcast from the Factoring Channel.
Bracy's commentary is a chilling reminder that hearings for the approval of structured settlement factoring transactions take place in open court "where anyone can be there". Furthermore, Bracy warns that written Court submissions sent to the court prior to the hearing may be public record.
This news apparently runs at odds with the published privacy policies of many factoring companies one of which states "…restricts access to nonpublic information about you to those employees who need this information to provide services and products to you or to service your transactions(s). … maintains electronic, procedural, and physical safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic information".
Kudos to Matt Bracy and Settlement Capital for helping to amp up the awareness of this very important issue.
For more information please review some of my coverage on Privacy Issues Related to Structured Settlements and Structured Settlement Factoring:
Your Confidentiality Agreement and Court Sniffers Mining Data for Factoring Companies 10/25/2010
Factoring Company Blunder In "Under Seal" Case to Devastating Effect April 28, 2011
Structured Settlement Privacy: Who's Sniffin Who? August 20, 2007
Factoring Company Court Sniffers Should Be Banned July 12, 2007
Postscript: Some time after this post was published Bracy's video podcast on privacy concerns was removed from public view. The period from 2012-2016 saw some of the prolific instances of scraping of court records by participants in the structured settlement secondary market.
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