Why Should I Pay You For A Feasibility Analysis?

I don’t mean to be disrespectful to you or your circumstances. You have had a horrendous economic loss in your life that you obviously did not see coming and you shouldn’t feel bad about that, but I do not want to let your problem become my problem. It’s just that simple. You are coming to me with a circumstance wanting to effect a recovery. If I wanted to run around looking at every case that knocked on my door free of charge, the line is very long. As it is, I have people who wait 1 to 3 years for me to pursue their case. So paying me for that work is one of the means by which I filter cases as well as helping me pay my overhead, my staff, my office rent and other expenses and keeping me going in between the recoveries in which I participate on a contingency or modified contingency fee basis. I hope that addresses your question. If you want more detail or specificity on your particular case then give me a call and let’s chat about it.

My Debtor Appears To Have Or To Own Little To Nothing But Lives A Really High Lifestyle. How Do You Get To The Assets Or The Money That He Does Not Own But Controls?

This is one of my most favorite questions. I live outside of Aspen, Colorado, I have an office down in the metropolitan area of Denver and I work all over the country. In Aspen, we have people with extraordinary wealth; we also have what we call a good number of high rollers that are not quite what they appear to be. Often there is a circumstance where there, in a local little airport, they can crowd in about 160 private jets in the high season. It’s a tourist area. There will be some people experienced at avoiding their creditors and hiding assets. This person will say “I own nothing and I control nothing but that Gulf Stream that’s landing right now, somehow that magically appears whenever I need a lift.” That is an indicia of a fraudulent conveyance or an indicator of a badge of fraud.

There are 9 to 11 badges of fraud, and I will detail them in a moment, but if I see a series of fraudulent conveyances and the fellow is making a business of this sort of thing and you are not his only target, I sometimes can actually increase the size of your judgement. How do I do that? If you have a judgement that gives me a hunting license to go after assets. If I see a fraudulent conveyance I’d file a separate suit to set aside the conveyance and reach the asset and oftentimes assert additional liability against the persons who got the asset. In addition, if I see a series of these transactions, I can then assert a claim for a pattern for racketeering activities under state or federal statutes. This does a couple of things. If it’s successful, it labels the wrongdoers as racketeers and no one seems to be fond of that label for obvious reasons. It tends to interfere with their ongoing business endeavors.

Second, a finding of racketeering automatically gives me a recovery of 3 times the amount of damage that you have suffered. So I can magnify your recovery by an order of 3 under those particular circumstances. In addition it gets us a recovery of attorney’s fees and costs. Depending on how your particular judgement reads, you may or may not otherwise be entitled to recovery or post-judgement attorney’s fees.

So let’s discuss the badges of fraud to which I have made reference, I’m going to tick some of them off. These are the things that we often look for. Insolvency or indebtedness of your debtor at the time an asset was transferred. If your debtor becomes insolvent at the time you made the transfer. If a debtor transfers all of his, her or its assets. Lack of consideration for the transfer or inadequate consideration for the transfer of property.

A voluntary conveyance under either prohibited circumstances or suspicious circumstances. Oftentimes people will have loan agreements and loan indenture agreements in other matters where they are prohibited from doing numerous things and they go ahead and do them anyway. The pendency of litigation or the mere threat of litigation. I’ve sued you or I’m coming after you or other people have sued you or are coming after you and in those circumstances, you start conveying assets. Certain insider relationship between the debtor and the people to whom he transfers assets such as close family members and certain business associates. It’s called a tainted transaction.

Secrecy or concealment in the transfer of property is another badge of fraud. Hidden conveyances that we don’t disclose of public record or departure from the transfer’s usual course of business. The retention of use of or control of an asset you allegedly conveyed away (and here is your Gulf Stream Jet plane example). The retention of possession, benefits or use of property that you’ve allegedly conveyed away or transferred away is just a classic badge of fraud. It is the “I own nothing but control everything” circumstance. The financial situation of the debtor at the time of the transfer or after the transfer. We look at that and get an overall sense for it. The existence of a cumulative effect of a series of transactions after the onset of the debtor’s “financial difficulties.” We look at the general chronology of events that surround the debtor, the debtor’s business life and his interaction with you. Also, facts or circumstances surrounding a transaction that indicate that your debtor is trying to hinder or delay or defraud someone, especially a court or opposing party.

We can get the same justice for hindering and delaying you as we can with proving fraud. These badges of fraud do not limit the range of what a fraudulent conveyance is, but these are the circumstances for which we look and when we show these we are then entitled to reach those assets that we’ve identified through those mechanisms. Beyond that I really need to know about your particular circumstances or you can tell me about your particular debtor.

My Debtor Is Really Good At Hiding Stuff. How Do You Find It When Recovering My Money?

My methods differ from most attorneys because I am told I’m terribly persevering. This helps induce pain with a debtor. When it’s painful enough a debtor will come to the table to get us out of their life. I’m always very careful to explain that there is nothing personal about this work. It’s just a matter of business and money and they should do all the things they have to do in life to address this little business problem and we’ll be flexible and work with them in doing so. If they have something other than a cash settlement, we will seek to work with them if they propose adequate collateralization mechanisms. Most lawyers that do this work, unless they really understand it at an unusual depth, in my opinion will usually start with the debtors and the written questions and then deposing the debtor and the guy says under oath that he has nothing. What can I do?

I like going to the debtor after doing a lot of preparation work where I know more about the debtor than the debtor is going to voluntarily tell me. So, in that way I can give the debtor every opportunity to lie under oath in a deposition or in front of a court.

Why And How Are Your Methods For Recovering a Judgment/Money Different Than Most Other Lawyers?

Proceeding in stages so that we minimize in steps the economic investment you make in recovering money that has already been taken from you. It’s something I think that most lawyers, and especially younger lawyers, do not do as carefully as we try to do in working with our clients, but it’s really up to my clients to tell me that. The perseverance is important. My willingness in business transactions to participate on a modified contingency fee basis or contingency fee basis on rare occasions, I’ve been told by judges that it is highly unusual for business transactions litigations to see a lawyer work on any kind of a contingency fee basis. You can find any reputable firm who will be happy to represent you on an hourly basis as long as you want to pay them. It’s sort of like going to a psychiatrist and paying them to listen to you as long as you pay him to do so. That psychiatrist, aside from professional qualifications or what they’ve done professionally, is in one sense of the word, a paid professional listener.

We lawyers will be glad to pursue every recovery that we can make for you as long as you pay for it on an hourly basis. The question is what makes sense to you and how do you know based upon facts what can be secured or developed at a viable cost and risk – just what is worth further investment and what is not. It should be an informed, factually based set of business decisions. No team of lawyers, no investigator can produce facts that do not exist. On the other hand there are many things that people have tried to hide or created asset structures like a pea shell game you see with a Carnival Barker and they move things around in constant motion; these can be identified and we can put a stop to them. I hope this has answered your question. If it hasn’t, feel free to call me and let’s talk about your particular situation.

For more information on Payment For Feasibility Analysis, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (720) 662-7192 today.