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October 04, 2007

Macomber Case Settled

According to Connecticut court records the plaintiff has withdrawn its action in the matter of Lisa Macomber et al. v Travelers Property and Casualty et al. (Docket HHD-CV-99-4022124-S).

Despite not achieving class action status last year, attorney Ralph Stone's 8 year effort was apparently not in vain. Some structured settlement industry historians might say the negative publicity surrounding this case has resulted in the elimination of certain "deals" that might have been de rigueur in the past between certain folks, present company excluded!

One wonders why Richard B. Risk, Jr, of The Risk Law Firm in Tulsa Oklahoma has not posted about this given that there are numerous case documents, including the class action status reversal, posted on Risk Law Firm web site. On the other hand, given the way Risk handled coverage of the "sovereign immunity issue" in Sistrunk v United States of America I am not at all surprised.

And what sayeth the scribe Patrick Hindert? In his September 10, 2007 post in Beyond Structured Settlements Hindert chastises the SSP "Having featured this case at its 2006 Annual Meeting, SSP should provide an update for its members about the Macomber settlement." Hindert felt Macomber was SOOOOO important that he wrote no fewer than 3 prior posts about it. Clearly Hindert knew about the Macomber settlement but yet even he has not written anything about it.

I guess "squiggly diagrams" for lawyers 2.0 was felt by Hindert to be of more significance.

One hopes that certain fringe factor structured settlement brokers and settlement planners will cease implying that the alleged behavior that gave rise to the lawsuit now applies to every insurer or even most insurers and members of their industry. Indeed the eventual exposure of those structured settlement brokers and settlement planners currently taking undisclosed factoring fees on the sale of structured settlement payment rights (much of which may be undisclosed and unconsented to by the seller) and how they directly impact the bottom line for a person who is an already deperate financial situation, has far more serious implications.

Posted at 01:08 PM in CT Structured Settlements, Insurance Company News, Macomber v Travelers, News About Structured Settlements, Richard B. Risk, Jr. | Commentary About Dick Risk and his Positions, Structured Settlement Information, Structured Settlements, Structured Settlements in Connecticut |

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