Recent blogs and emails on the subject of "the structured settlement factoring vig scandal" have met with numerous contacts from members of the National Structured Settlement Trade Association and Society of Settlement Planners. There has been tremendous positive response to this project.
As previously stated, this author shortly intends to publish a list of all settlement professionals who sign the Structured Settlement Business Practices Declaration regarding Structured Settlement Factoring compensation.Download StructuredSettlementDeclarationonFactoringPractice.pdf
This author believes so fervently that there is a substantial public benefit to making this information public and to give EVERY TRIAL LAWYER IN AMERICA, EVERY TRIAL LAWYER ASSOCIATION IN AMERICA, and any other interested party, a resource that they can use to protect their plaintiffs from the undisclosed "structured settlement factoring vig", that he now announces the following:
- To be fair to those members of the NSSTA and SSP and other full time professionals (whose primary business is the creation or placement of structured settlements) who have signed the declaration, this author also intends to publish, within 30 days, a list of settlement professionals who were sent emails notifying and giving them the opportunity to do so but who DID NOT SIGN the declaration by December 31, 2007. That's 27 days from today.
IMPORTANT NOTICE This author has received a number of emails from structured settlement brokers and settlement planners in the last few days with favorable proclamations about their business practices.Thank you. The declaration, however was created to give some teeth to the process. If you want to be on the published Structured Settlement Clean Vendor list which will be sent to every trial lawyer association in America then you will have to sign the declaration.
2. It has come to my attention this afternoon that certain corporate entities may not be permitting their independent affiliates to sign the Structured Settlement Business Practices Declaration concerning Structured Settlement Factoring Compensation. A number of business entities have sent me emails about their company policy. Upon information and belief the executives at some of those companies may not be completely aware of what the individuals in their organizations are doing. Frankly, in the opinion of this author, this process helps those companies identify if any of its affiliates or members are violating company policy. The company might be worried about exposure for inadequate supervision. If those entities wish to send me a company policy statement, signed by an authorized executive, under penalty of perjury, regarding the 3 elements of the above declaration. I will publish same. This is not the same as individuals making the declaration however, and will not be reflected as same on the list. The overall problem is not a company problem, it is an individual greed problem that comes at the expense of tort victims.
Those that are shortsighted about the extent of the crisis will pay the price, but will that foot the bill for the rest of us?.
3. Due to the lack of sufficient regulation, as a service to plaintiffs and the trial bar, this author will also be creating a declaration, compiling and publishing a list of factoring companies who agree to be bound by certain ethical business practices.This author invites factoring companies to participate in this discussion concerning the declaration being prepared for them. Those that sign and those do not sign will be published so that EVERY PLAINTIFF and EVERY TRIAL LAWYER IN AMERICA has a resource that they can use to protect their plaintiffs.
4. I realize that this may not make me the most popular guy in town, but then being an agent of change has never been the most popular position. Here are some poignant quotes that I found on the subject of "change":
I'm just trying to make a smudge on the collective unconscious.
David Letterman, talk show host
You can't change what you don't acknowledge.
Dr Phil McGraw, talk show host
Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.
Jack Welch, former GE Chairman
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change".
Charles Darwin , famed naturalist
If you don't change, reality in the end forces that change upon you.
Stuart Wilde , urban mystic and visionary
And here's a quote that sadly and aptly sums up the whole factoring fandango:
"There's nothing that will change someone's moral outlook quicker than cash in large sums".
Larry Flynt, Hustler magazine
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