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January 19, 2021

Ethics or Optics? | Personal Injury Lawyers Represent Companies Buying Structured Settlements For Pennies on Dollar

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

A number of personal injury trial lawyers, including those admitted to the New York State Bar, mebers of NYSTLA and such are representing structured settlement factoring companies in transactions that result in recipients of structured settlement payments receiving no better than pennies on the dollar. 

Optics or ethics
Ethics or optics? Personal injury lawyers who represent structured settlement factoring companies

The same lawyers and/or firms also advertise and solicit business from personal injury victims. 

One such law firm, known to have represented structured settlement factoring companies in thousands of cases advertises the millions it has recovered for injury victims, while at the same time asks if you have an an annuity or structured settlement to support its "facilitating access to your money". 

Another personal injury firm, which is now disbanded, advertised that it was a personal injury law firm "committed to representing innocent accident victims who have suffered serious and catastrophic personal injuries" while also representing some of the biggest structured settlement factoring companies in the business.

Recently I came across another firm in the New York City area which advertises it does personal injury but has popped up in representation of pennies on the dollar merchants. The law firm also shares an office address with another lawyer who is listed as an Independent Professional Advisor on a number of the first law firm's cases.

A Conflict of Interest for Personal Injury Lawyers to Represent Factoring Companies in Cash Now Deals?

I can't help thinking that this may be going on all across the United States. While not dismissing a person's right to make a living, in my opinion such representations deserve scrutiny by such firms for potential conflicts of interest.

Areas of potential conflicts of interests include:

  • How data acquired during the legal representation for the personal injury case is used. 
  • How that data is protected?  Is there a "Chinese Wall"?
  • Has the lawyer considered structured settlements for his or her clients in the past?  Are they making structured settlements available to their clients for consideration? 
  • If one of the lawyers past clients returns with questions about selling their structured settlement payments, what happens?  Does the lawyer refer the matter out or do they handle their former client's sale. 
  • Does the lawyer/law firm disclose that he/she or it derives income, perhaps substantial income, from pennies on the dollar merchants?  
  • Susceptibility of the lawyer/law firm or one of his/her or its employees, to potential inducements that the lawyer/law firms secondary market clients may offer for referrals
  • Directly or indirectly buying factored structured settlement payment streams of clients

The is something that should concern not only judges, but consumers and other lawyers. 

 

 

 

Posted at 02:34 PM in Albany New York Structured Settlements, Bronx New York Structured Settlements, Brooklyn New York Structured Settlements, Buffalo New York Structured Settlements, Buffalo Structured Settlement Cash Now, Lockport Structured Settlements, New York State Trial Lawyers Association, Niagara County Structured Settlements, NYC Structured Settlements, NYSTLA, Structured Settlement Factoring, Structured Settlement Factoring News, Structured Settlement Watchdog®, Syracuse Structured Settlements |

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Guide to Structured Settlements 2024

  • What is a Structured Settlement? What You Need to Know
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  • Rated Ages and Structured Settlement Cost
    Rated Ages for Structured Settlement Annuities present advantages to all parties. Shift the mortality risk to a life insurance company whose business it it is to assess mortality risk to price its life insurance and annuities. Rated ages boost your structured settlement annuity benefit per premium dollar, or your yield on lifetime payments. Rated ages help to reduce the cost of funding a Medicare Set Aside arrangement where a Structured MSA, is being used { WCMSA LMSA or NFMSA].
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    Which life insurance companies issue structured settlement annuities in 2024? A list of current structured annuity issuers, the location of their home offices and their financial ratings from A.M. Best, Moodys, Fitch, Standard & Poors and/or other Tier1 NAIC ratings, with links to their websites and other useful information. Last updated June 14, 2024
  • Treasury Funded Structured Settlements
    Treasury Funded Structured Settlements are a settlement option for the most conservative using the OTHER permissible qualified funding asset under IRC 130(d), United States Treasury Bonds in addition to, or instead of, structured settlement annuities. Treasury Funded Structured Settlements can also be used to fund installment sales, also known as structured sales and other non qualified structured settlements.
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    Use the Taxable Equivalent Yield chart to help compare the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of a structured settlement to other alternative or complementary investments. Need help with the chart? Call 4structures.com® LLC at 888-325-8640
  • Structured Settlement Payments | Types of Structured Settlements 2024
    Ways You Can Structure Your Settlement Payments in 2024. With a structured settlement you can have more than one type of payment in a single contract. Different types of structured settlement payments can be customized and combined to meet your needs on a stand-alone basis, or in conjunction with other financial products. Diversify your structured settlement, if you wish, by funding with more than one annuity issuer, with treasury funded structured settlements, index linked structured settlement payments and market based structured .
  • Structured Attorney Fees for Tax Deferral for Attorney Contingency Fees
    Structured attorney fees is a financial strategy that offers a unique way to defer taxes for lawyers and law firms. Lawyers CAN structure their legal fees even if the plaintiff doesn't structure their settlement. There are multiple ways to structure your attorney fees, such as capped or uncapped index linked structured settlement annuities where payments are adjusted based on upside changes in the S&P 500 or another index, Trial Lawyers may also use a special deferred pay/deferred compensation arrangement, if market based returns returns are desired with no cap. Plan NOW for year end! Put structured attorney fee expert John Darer® on your settlement planning team in 2024.
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    Receiving structured settlement payments from your own structured settlement or inherited structured settlement? You'll like this huge time saver. Click the title for a link to a comprehensive list of customer service telephone numbers that includes both current AND former structured settlement annuity issuers and reinsurers. If you have simple bank or beneficiary changes, or if the insurance company that issued the structured annuity has merged, sold or spun off its block of structured annuity business (e.g. Aviva, Allstate, Transamerica, AEGON, GE Capital, Liberty, CNA, Confederation Life), oran annuity issuer has changed its name and you're trying to track them down. Here you go! The list is regularly updated. Last updated May 20, 2024.
  • Structured Settlement Quote Lock-Ins | What You Need To Know
    What does a Structured Settlement Lock-In Mean? How do plaintiffs, defendants and insurers benefit from a structured settlement quote lock in when finalizing a settlement? How does the defendant/insurer/court benefit from using a structured settlement lock-in? Where to be careful when using structured settlement lock ins.
  • What Are Structured Settlement Annuities?
    Structured settlement annuities are annuities that can provide one or more customized annuity payment streams in a single contract. Read about structured settlement annuities here.
  • History of Structured Settlements
    Tracing the roots of structured settlements history from 1918, when Congress exempted damages for personal injury or sickness from income tax, to the establishment of structured settlements as a core personal injury settlement planning tool to the present day.
  • What Are Market Based Structured Settlements?
    Market based structured settlements are an alternative or supplementary structured settlement solution for the plaintiff, attorney or law firm that: 1. Can afford to take some market risk 2. Have discretionary settlement dollars. Claimants and attorneys alike may find that market-based structured settlements provide the opportunity to receive tax-free income, or tax-deferred income, while enjoying growth potential.
  • iStructure |Uncapped Fixed Index Structured Settlement Annuity
    iStructure is an innovative game changing fixed index structured settlement annuity for plaintiffs or attorneys. with an intermediate to long term horizon
  • Structured Settlements and Longevity Risk| What Are the Odds?
    Do your financial resources give you enough road, or will the road run out before you do? A structured settlement annuity helps mitigate the risk of outliving your savings, no matter how long you live. A structured settlement can include one or more customized payment streams and types.

Qualified Settlement Funds

  • What is a Qualified Settlement Fund?
    Qualified Settlement Funds | What You Need to Know
  • Firmwide Qualified Settlement Funds Debunked
    Firmwide qualified settlement funds have been heavily promoted to trial lawyers, but have been debunked in a detailed analysis in a July 2022 legal opinion a tax partner at the law firm of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP. Trial lawyers and firms who have established Firmwide QSFs or coinsidering establishing a Firmwide QSF should read the analysis as part of their evaluation.

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