ATTORNEYS: Why should you have a broker to refer your clients to?

March 29, 2008

Over the past 4 years in meeting attorneys, it astounds me to find that over 95% of attorneys that I met didn’t have a broker to refer thier clients to when their clients needed a lawsuit cash advance or structured settlement.

Some of them had the position of “we just let them find it for themselves”. Some of them do not want to be responsible for referring them to a broker. Some have never met a broker. There are also some attorneys who absolutely hate the idea of lawsuit cash advances so they of course do not make a broker accesible to their clients and usually try and block the transaction from happening.

I know that having a broker to refer their clients to is helpful for many reasons. First, is that it makes them look resourceful. Their clients think of them as a counselour so they ask them all kinds of questions, especially financial ones. They look good in being able to make a referral. Second, even if they hate the idea of lawsuit cash advance but the clients persist and want it, wouldn’t it make sense to have a broker who could get their clients the lowest rates and best service rather than having the client search out any option? I surveyed my clients and asked them ONE QUESTION: “When you needed this money, would you have taken a high interest rate if I offered it just to have the money?” They all said “yes”. This told me that it would be better for the attorney to have a reource and control whether the clients got ripped of or not. Most people searching for lawsuit cash advances take the first offer out of desperation without considering the interest.

I visited a firm yesterday in Dallas and the Case Manager told me that I was a loan shark and that they try and steer their clients away from these deals. He was trying to make me feel bad for helping people. So I asked him “does it make sense to not have a resource to refer your clients to when they absolutely have to have the money so that they get the lowest interest rate?” He said “no”. Case in point.

I didn’t address his accusation of loan shark BECAUSE I DO NOT LOAN MONEY. I advance plaintiffs money. I am very glad to help people when no one else will. My testimonials page proves that my clients see this as valuable.

Are you going to let your clients get ripped off because you didn’t have a broker to refer them to?

Posted by Rob Thomas | Filed Under Blog, cash advance, divorce settlement, lawsuit advance, lawsuit cash advance, lawsuit funding, litigation funding, plaintiff funding, presettlement funding, settlement funding | 1 Comment

Lawsuit cash advances on Slip and Fall cases (Premises Liability)

March 27, 2008

I get referred a fair amount of premises liability cases. These among the medical malpractice cases can be some of the hardest to fund. Of the cases that get declined, premises liability cases have the highest decline rate in my 4 years of doing this.

To avoid getting declined, there are three factors that need to be present. The first is that the liability must be clear and strong. The defedant has to undeniably be liable. The stronger the liability, the more likely you are to receive an advance. The second factor are damages. That is, how you were affected by this either physically, economically, mentally, etc. In some states that have been crushed by tort reform this can be limited. However, the basic rule is that the more serverely injured you are (not just physically but economically) the better chance you have of getting an advance on your slip and fall case. The third and final factor is the strength of the defendant’s ability to pay. This is usually an insurance company so the policy limits and the company can make a big difference here.

If you have those three factors working for you, there is a good chance you will be able to get a lawsuit advance.

Posted by Rob Thomas | Filed Under Blog, cash advance, lawsuit advance, lawsuit cash advance, lawsuit funding, litigation funding, plaintiff funding, presettlement funding, settlement funding | Leave a Comment

Interesting statistic: 80% of my clients………

March 20, 2008

This statistic is 3 years in the running. I fund a ton of personal injury lawsuits. In that arena, I have found that 80% of the cases I have advanced money on the plaintiff was rear ended WHILE AT A COMPLETE STOP. They were either at a stop light or a stop sign and were collided into by vehicles going 40 mph or faster! Some of these were sever personal injury lawsuits that were caused by trucks - BIG trucks. Trucking accidents are actually on the rise.

I don’t tell you this so that the next time you are at a stop you fixate into your rear view mirror in fear, but it does pay to be aware of how accidents are happening.

Whomever you are that runs into to people while they are at a stop I have some good recommendations for you: DRIVE your vehicle. Don’t let it DRIVE you. Come to a stop BEFORE you put on make-up, talk on the phone, reach for the item in the dashboard, change the radio station, turn around and discipline your kiddo, go to sleep or anything else that doesn’t have anything to do with controlling your vehicle.

I’d like to see this personal injury stat drop.

Structured Settlements and Recession/Inflation

March 14, 2008

You will see lots of blogging from me regarding lawsuit cash advances, divorce settlements, attorney funding, commerical advances and structured settlements and how the dollar affects it currently.

Yahoo Finance is a great place to go to find out the value of your Dollar. The Fed just recently launched it’s news as to how it was going to “help” the economy by injecting the economy with billions. This lessens your Dollar. The more of anything you have, the less value it is.

Many of you have just settled your lawsuit and now have an annuity that will pay you over a certain amount of time. While it is great to have that security of a guaranteed check every month or year (however you took it), your settlement is diminishing rapidly! How rapid? Here is an inflation calculator for you to see just how fast.

One way you could hedge against this would be to get a Structured Settlement. This means you will sell a portion of your settlement to the right finance company in exchange for money now. The benefits to this would be that you get the money at it’s current value and you could invest in a business or something that would earn you interest. Like Shadowtraders - visit the blog roll to like to them.

If you have any other questions about Structured Settlements call me at the 866 number on the home page.

Posted by Rob Thomas | Filed Under Blog, divorce settlement, lawsuit advance, lawsuit cash advance, plaintiff funding, settlement funding | Leave a Comment

What to do if your attorney says, “We don’t do that, we won’t sign anything.”

March 9, 2008

This happens to my clients about once a quarter. They will find me on craigslist and so we do the application, I fax a document request to the attorney, they respond and send me the documents, then we get approved and now it is time for the attorney and client to sign the contract and the attorney starts to block this from happening.

The client get infuriated with their attorney becuase they are about to be evicted, lights are getting turned off, etc and they don’t know what to do.

The first thing you ask your attorney is “why?”. Do NOT accept the answer of “we just don’t do it”. That is not an answer, it is a put-off. Try and understand where the attorney is coming from. Maybe they had a client in the past get totally ripped off by an expensive company and they don’t want that to happen to you. But would’nt the solution to that be to research the company and their rates WHICH ARE ON THE CONTRACT?

Try and find out from them if they think the case is too small to do an advance or if they don’t think they can settle for what you would need to get an advance.

If they tell you that they can’t help you get an advance, depending on the state, that is not true. Here is where you can find out what the bar has to say about it in each state: http://www.lawfunder.com/ethics.htm.

I have also heard of some attorneys saying they cannot sign a “letter of protection” for these types of transactions. well, there are two ways to approach this: One, the attorney is using a word that has no written dictionary definition. I have a Black’s Law Dictionary (also found at www.blacklawdictionary.com) and that word doesn’t exist. Two, the attorney is asked to “acknowledge” that there is a lien not guarantee the funds using a letter of protection.

If after trying to communicate with your attorney you still are getting nowhere and they are trying to block you from improving your conditions in life by getting a lawsuit cash advance, you should get a new attorney unless your case is settling within a month and you will have your funds then.

My position is you do not have to accept that. You have the right to fire them at any time. You hired them to help you. You are not asking them to do anything illegal, immoral or unethical so it is insane that they would try and block you from surviving better.

If you are in Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Bradenton, or Dallas and you need a referral, just call me and I will give you a referral of an attorney who will not block you from doing this.

Posted by Rob Thomas | Filed Under cash advance, divorce settlement, lawsuit advance, lawsuit cash advance, lawsuit funding, litigation funding, plaintiff funding, presettlement funding, settlement funding | Leave a Comment

10 questions to ask BEFORE you get a lawsuit cash advance

March 9, 2008

1. How long will it REALLY take?

Many people/companies advertise CASH IN 48 HRS! I have been doing this for 3 years and hit that target maybe twice. One reason this isn’t good to promise is the law firm needs to send documents to me to get started and sometimes they dont fax them right away. What if they take two days to send me the documents?

2. Can you give me a rate right now or will you make me wait until the contract is issued and because of desparation I get forced to accept the deal.

Self explanatory.

3. What happens if I lose or do not collect?

You want to make sure you are not liable to pay it back.

4. Are you a broker or a funding source?

A funding source may or may not be the best deal for you because of service level and interest rates.

5. If I am not severely injured, can I still get an advance?

Most companies will not fund you if you are known as a “soft tissue case”. They need minimally a herniation or bulge in your spine to fund you.

6. Do you have an application fee (how much)?

This gets added to your advance and grows at interest with SOME companies. Not mine however.

7. What company do you use to fund your cases (if they are a broker)?

Some companies are more expensive and have fees added. Some are slower than others so if you are in a hurry consider that.

8. What is the interest rate?

Self explanatory.

9. How do I get the money?

10. What case types do you fund?

Your case may not be a personal injury case. You may need a company that has a large capacity to fund different types. You can view the case types I fund on my website.

Always get your questions answered and make sure you fully understand what you are doing before you do it.

The dollar is shrinking in value: How it affects your lawsuit settlement.

March 9, 2008

The dollar is at a record low. It shows no signs of going back up. What does this to to your settlement? This SHRINKS it! Unfortunately neither you or I can control whether it goes up or down but you can assert SOME control. You can counter this affect by getting a lawsuit cash advance and then investing in something that will earn more interest than the dollar devalues. Recently, I had a client ask me, “Do you think I should borrow money from a bank or get an advance on my lawsuit to buy this business?” He had gotten a smaller advance from me and was looking into buying businesses. Smart man. My answer to him was this, ‘When you borrow money from a bank you are creating debt. When you add to the interest the devaluation of a dollar it makes it VERY difficult to pay it back. By getting a settlement advance, you are using an asset, you just don’t have the money in your hands yet. This is what the wealthy do.” He then realized how much of a better deal that was. In addition, I asked him if he wanted the bank to be a partner in his business. He replied “no”. He then realized by getting an advance, he gets the dollar today at it’s current value and by using his settlement to fund his business purchase instead of a loan, he doesn’t have debt and the bank is not a business partner.

While you may not be purchasing a business, you should keep a watch on what the dollar is doing and assess how it will affect your settlement.

Posted by Rob Thomas | Filed Under attorney funding, attorney loan, cash advance, divorce settlement, law firm loans, lawsuit advance, lawsuit cash advance, lawsuit funding, litigation funding, plaintiff funding, presettlement funding, settlement funding | 2 Comments