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Tag: “structured settlement protection” “structured settlement factoring” “Virginia Structured Settlement Protection” “Virginia SSPA” SSPA

Newspaper Focuses On Legislator’s Role While Parties Battle Over Possible Dismissal of Settlement Factoring Lawsuit

Newspaper Focuses On Legislator’s Role While Parties Battle Over Possible Dismissal of Settlement Factoring Lawsuit

As the parties to a putative class-action battle over whether a case involving structured settlement factoring should be dismissed, the dispute has drawn additional attention from a news publication that has underscored the fact that one of the defendants is a Virginia legislator. In this action, Plaintiffs allege that a Virginia lawmaker, Stephen Heretick, and several Virginia state court judges were complicit in a scheme to defraud personal injury victims. As reported today by the Virginia Pilot, this scheme involved…

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Virginia Court Ruling Allows Payee’s Challenge to Factoring Transactions to Proceed

Virginia Court Ruling Allows Payee’s Challenge to Factoring Transactions to Proceed

The legal rulings in SAF Funding, LLC v. Taylor, Case No. CL-3022, 2017 Va. Cir. LEXIS 316 (Va. Cir. Ct. Oct. 27, 2017), are many and follow a long and complicated history, but the bottom line is this: the structured settlement payee who is challenging factoring transactions may proceed with his lawsuit. In the ruling, the Virginia Circuit Court for City of Portsmouth addressed a number of ancillary issues, but the key determination was that the payee would be allowed to try…

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Class-Action Complainant Alleges Scheme By Factoring Companies, With Virginia Judges, To Deprive Structured Settlement Payees of Rights to Counsel, Rights to Future Payments

Class-Action Complainant Alleges Scheme By Factoring Companies, With Virginia Judges, To Deprive Structured Settlement Payees of Rights to Counsel, Rights to Future Payments

A putative class-action plaintiff filed a complaint last week alleging that some Virginia judges were complicit in a scheme, arranged by factoring companies and their lawyer, that was designed to deprive structured settlement payees of their rights – namely, their rights to get legal advice about proposed sales of payment rights to the companies, their rights to having an impartial arbiter decide whether sales of the payees’ payments met statutory standards, and their rights to the payments themselves. The lawsuit…

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Virginia House Approves Structured Settlement Protection Act Revision

Virginia House Approves Structured Settlement Protection Act Revision

Virginia’s lower house this week approved a revision to the state’s structured settlement protection act that would mandate that factoring companies inform reviewing courts about certain prior transfers, and make sure that the proceeding occurred in the home county of the payee. The Washington Post reported about the Virginia House of Delegates vote here, in a story entitled Structured settlements reform bill passes Va. house. The bill would also require that structured settlement payees appear in person at the hearings…

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Virginia Legislative Committee Votes to Revise SSPA

Virginia Legislative Committee Votes to Revise SSPA

A bill that would revise the Virginia Structured Settlement Protection Act, and require that judicial proceedings occur in the payee’s home county, was approved by a legislative committee this week, the Washington Post reports. Said the Post: Virginia is one of 49 states that require county courts to determine whether a settlement-purchase deal is in the seller’s best interest.  But industry experts say there are weaknesses in state law: Structured-settlement recipients who want to sell their payments are not obligated…

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Greater Protections Needed for Structured Settlement Payees in Virginia, Says Washington Post Editorial Panning ‘Pennies on the Dollar’ Factoring Deals

Greater Protections Needed for Structured Settlement Payees in Virginia, Says Washington Post Editorial Panning ‘Pennies on the Dollar’ Factoring Deals

In Virginia, structured settlement payees are not required to attend court hearings in structured settlement protection act proceedings, payees can enter into transactions without the advice of independent counsel, and the SSPA proceedings can be filed anywhere in the state so factoring companies are allowed to “find judges most receptive to the sales” of structured settlement payments. All of these are shortcomings with the Virginia SSPA that should be addressed, according to a  January 5 Washington Post editorial. The Post…

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Virginia Lawmakers Say Structured Settlement Protection Act Isn’t Working the Way It Should, Reports Washington Post

Virginia Lawmakers Say Structured Settlement Protection Act Isn’t Working the Way It Should, Reports Washington Post

Following up on an in-depth article about structured settlement factoring practices in Virginia, the Washington Post today said that the issue has gotten the attention of state lawmakers who intend to strengthen the state’s structured settlement protection act. The Post said that members of the Virginia legislature are considering legislative changes, because the Virginia SSPA “isn’t working the way it should to catch ‘bad actors.”  One lawmaker was quoted as saying, “Obviously the current system’s not working”. The Virginia SSPA is…

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Post Says ‘Casinos and Strip Clubs’ Were Used to Woo Potential Customers to Sell Settlement Payment Rights

Post Says ‘Casinos and Strip Clubs’ Were Used to Woo Potential Customers to Sell Settlement Payment Rights

The Washington Post’s story about the settlement factoring practices in Virginia, “Perils of early payoffs in Virginia” (described in this post earlier today), included a great deal of details about the story of Terrence Taylor. Taylor is a payee who was entitled to receive large structured settlement payments, and whose payments became the subject of multiple proceedings under the Virginia Structured Settlement Protection Act.  Courts in Virginia approved more than a dozen transfers of Taylor’s payments, and Taylor is now suing…

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Washington Post Turns Secondary Market Focus Toward Virginia SSPA, Describes Forum-Shopping, Other Settlement Factoring Practices

Washington Post Turns Secondary Market Focus Toward Virginia SSPA, Describes Forum-Shopping, Other Settlement Factoring Practices

In a page one story that parallels an earlier expose of factoring company practices in Maryland, the Washington Post today published a lengthy, page-one article about factoring practices in Virginia. “Perils of early payoffs in Virginia” by reporter Terrence McCoy describes the story of Terrence Taylor, whose legal battles against factoring companies are ongoing.  The report described how many of the transactions involving Taylor were approved by a court in Portsmouth, Virginia, where a large proportion of Virginia SSPA proceedings have…

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