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October 25, 2018

California Lawyer in Highly Questionable New York IPA with 18.82% Discount Rate!

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

California Lawyer Produces One of the Worst Structured Settlement IPAs I've Ever Seen.

A La Jolla California lawyer formerly associated in an LLC with Richart Ruddie and Ryan Blank, has written a 7 page IPA on September 3, 2018, in support of a pending structured settlement transfer being offered to the fiduciary of a disabled African American New Yorker, bearing a confiscatory 18.82% discount rate  (according to a filed disclosure by the structured settlement factoring company).

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The IPA report written by the California lawyer, who states he is Managing lawyer for a legal services company, a Wharton grad, University of Chicago MBA and University of Michigan Law School grad, is full of obvious typos and cut and paste. For example the fiduciary's ward is a single person (her son) and the La Jolla lawyer refers to her children in the IPA. A Syracuse grad like me took no time at all to marvel at how in the IPA, the California lawyer refers to her son's name in one sentence and in the next sentence refers to him as a country that by coincidence rhymes with the beneficiary's name.  The La Jolla lawyer also gets the factoring company's name spelled wrong in multiple places.

Questionable Representation by La Jolla Lawyer in Structured Settlement IPA for New York Fiduciary

The La Jolla lawyer states in the court filed IPA "we devoted substantial time to the consideration if the being paid was fair. You acknowledged that because the time value of money, the disparity noted above is not as great as it otherwise appears".  Had the La Jolla lawyer merely looked at a prior attempt by Olympic Financial, LLC, associated with Highpoint Funding, which was rejected only 4 months prior, he would have seen an 11.77% discount rate rejected. Thus the credibility of the IPA, in this instance, must seriously be called into question. The disparity is in fact every bit as great as it otherwise appears. A person with a high school equivalency diploma could even see that!

The proposed factoring deal would pay $85,000 for $221,701.71 worth of payments starting in 2019 (according to the actual filed disclosure) when fair value would be in in excess of $150,000 according to my sources. While I have serious doubts that the proposed deal would be approved by a judge in any of the five boroughs of New York City, the fact that the California lawyer, who spent one of the seven pages touting his considerable academic accomplishments, didn't pick up this is mind boggling. The La Jolla lawyer also states that the purchase price is an entirely different, but a still noncompetitive number of $90,000. Like nobody is going to pick this up?  Court clerks, lawyers for the annuity issuer/assignee for instance.

The Same Case Brings Dan Cevallos (or is it Dave now)  Above the Parapet 

When a structured settlement factoring petition is submitted it's not long before other predators emerge. I have a copy of Frank Cevallos' business card from Advance Funding LLC. Frank brought with him his "supervisor" who had an empty wallet and no business cards, but was puportedly running the show.  Hmm. I know of a retired couple from Massachusetts who would love to get their hooks into Dan Cevallos and Advance Funding LLC. I am told that Cevallos' even scoffed at the number that the La Jolla lawyer glossed over. But the talk of finding an address of a cousin in Pennsylvania underscores that forum shopping is alive and well in New York. There is an order in place since 2012, that refers all applications to transfer to the guardianship part and submitting in Pennsylvania would be in contravention to that order.

Thankfully this blog exists as a resource for potential victims who have a gut feeling that something isn't quite right. The key is to recognize that before you sign anything.

 

Posted at 10:41 PM in Independent Professional Advice, La Jolla IPA, Structured Settlement Factoring News, Structured Settlement IPA, Structured Settlement Watchdog®, Structured Settlements Florida |

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