Here at Edward Stone Law, we get phone calls every day from people who feel they have been taken advantage of by factoring companies when selling their structured settlement payments.

One of the most common things we hear is that sellers have been told it is legal to go to another state and sell their payments. The courts in some states, like New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania look very carefully at transfer petitions. Factoring companies don’t like this because they make a big profit when they buy a seller’s payments.

This practice of a factoring company moving a seller from one state to another in order to buy their structured settlement payments is called “forum shopping.” Factoring companies are telling sellers it is legal to do this.  It is not.  The transfer petition must be brought in a court in the state in which the seller lives or is domiciled.

Every state except New Hampshire has a Structured Settlement Protection Act that sets forth the requirements a factoring company must follow in filing a transfer petition. The factoring company must comply with those laws, and a Federal statute, 26 U.S.C. Section 5891.  Section 5891 imposes an excise tax on a factoring transaction that does not qualify for exemption under the conditions specified in Section 5891(b).

If you are a seller who was victimized by a factoring company that filed a transfer petition in a state that you did not reside in, please contact Edward Stone Law by email at eddie@edwardstonelaw.com or by phone at (203) 504-8425.

Louisiana’s Structured Settlement Protection Act (SSPA) was just revised, adding some additional provisions which may help curb some of the factoring industry abuses.  Unfortunately, some of the new provisions are designed to protect the factoring companies, and not those selling their structured settlement payments.  The new legislation, which goes into effect on July 1, 2020 provides that (1) factoring companies register with the secretary of state, be qualified to do business in Louisiana, and post a $50,000 bond; (2) any petition must be brought in the parish (county) where the seller resides; and (3) the seller receive independent professional advice.  But judicial oversight of structured settlement transfers is crucial, and the revised statute does not set forth any specific criteria that must be considered by the judiciary before approving a transfer of structured settlement periodic payments.  Our warnings to all sellers still apply:  BE CAREFUL!  The factoring companies (and their sales reps) are not your friends.  They want you to sell so that they can earn a commission.  Most of the “deals” they offer you are no deal at all.

In late November, 2018 DRB Capital, LLC filed a lawsuit in Palm Beach Circuit Court, Florida against several other secondary market, factoring companies, including Rightway Funding LLC, BTG Advisors LLC, Sempra Finance LLC, Greenwood Funding LLC, and JLC Capital Funding LLC alleging that these companies interfered with DRB’s business in violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by employing “a parasitic approach to obtaining customers from which to purchase the transfer of structured settlement rights.” The defendants have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

On August 3, 2017, the Miami Herald reported that Jose Camacho, the Broward County attorney who specialized in filing structured settlement transfer petitions was sentenced to one year in jail, and ten years of probation.  He plead guilty to 14 felony charges after forging over 100 judicial signatures beginning in 2012.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has filed suit in federal court in Baltimore accusing Access Funding of violations of the federal Consumer Protection Act.  Access Funding (now Reliance Funding) is a purchaser of structured settlement payment streams whose alleged predatory business practices involving people who had been poisoned by lead paint as children were exposed by investigative reporter Terrence McCoy of The Washington Post last summer.  Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY); Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md); Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md); Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md) and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) all praised the CFPB effort to protect consumers who may have been victims of financial fraud by companies in the structured settlement industry.

This federal lawsuit follows on the heels of a similar lawsuit filed by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh in May, 2016.  The state court action filed by Attorney General Frosh is pending in Baltimore City Circuit Court. Frosh has pledged to work to “prevent vulnerable Marylanders from having their money taken from them through illegal practices.”