by Structured Settlement Watchdog
Chester County Judge William P. Mahon angrily dismissed the petition by a Delaware-based financial firm that had asked court approval of its plan to convert $2.99 million from the 2017 settlement to approximately $850,000 in cash — less then 50 percent of the total — for the man, who appeared before Mahon with his wife. Mahon found that the man’s affidavit in the petition — it was the third filed on his behalf by firms attempting to gain access to the settlement funds in exchange for an immediate payout — was riddled with sketchy assertions about his financial well-being that were contradicted by statements the man made in court. The putative seller, only settled his case against Penn State last year. The settlement arose from the Jerry Sandusky sexual assault scandal. The first attempt to sell came on October 13, 2017, a mere 6 weeks from the date the settlement agreement was signed. It should be noted that, upon information and belief, the seller WAS represented and/or whose attorney, engaged the services of a plaintiff settlement planner when the structured settlement was entered into on August 1, 2017.
Perhaps with an eye for "Shark Week", Judge Mahon remarked that the number of firms out to gain access to the settlement was like “sharks with blood in the water.” said a reporter Michael Rellahan, a reporter whose story appeared in Chester County's Daily Local News July 17, 2018. Other judges have of course characterized such companies as other predatory creatures, namely "vultures" or "hyenas".
Prior denied petitions were in different counties. "(The man) has not set forth any basis for the court to conclude that entering into this specific transaction is in his best interest,” Judge Michael F. Salisbury wrote in January 2, 2018. “(He) is currently able to live comfortably and care for his dependents with his monthly payments coupled with his disability payments. (His) home is paid for and, literally, he wants for nothing.
“(He) is best serviced by slowly building his existing business and working toward the future as opposed to sacrificing an extraordinary amount of money for immediate growth,” Salisbury wrote in denying the transfer petition". [Source: Rellahan article, Opinion and Order Clinton County Court of Common Pleas 1376-2017-CV]
Unlike Portsmouth Virginia, where a RICO suit is pending in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against several "vultures" and their lawyer Stephen Heretick involving thousands of cases and a few alleged complicit essentially rubber stamping judges, it's nice to see that there are some judges, like Judge Mahon in Chester County and Judge Salisbury in Clinton County, who provide a level of scrutiny and care, to uphold a law designed to protect structured settlement recipients.
As a side note, "The Fisher Firm", cited in Rellahan's article, purportedly of Sheridan, NY, a town in Chautauqua County New York with a population of about 2,000,has no website and no phone number. New York's Secretary of State has no registration do business by either Fisher Firm or The Fisher Firm . Download The Fisher Firm. Our sources indicate " The Fisher Firm is simply a name for a hodge podge of ex-JG Wentworth operatives.
Sorry to get cagey on ya but the judge says no puddy tat
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