Settlement Loan: July 2007

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Quality Debt Settlement Businesses

Are you in debt? If so, you might need the help of one of the many quality debt settlement businesses available to you to help pay off what you owe. Finding such businesses isn’t always easy, and there are some questions you must ask before you commit to a contract. Do some personal investigating to find out which businesses [if any] are right for you.

So, how can you locate a quality debt settlement businesses? First of all, by searching right online. Naturally, not all businesses are the same and you must find out if each one is valid or not, including if it is licensed by your state. Happily, most corporate web sites share this type of information openly.

Here are five steps you can take to ensure that the company you are dealing with is on the up and up:

1. Check with the Better Business Bureau {BBB} to see if complaints have been registered against a particular company. Ask the BBB for a list of quality debt settlement businesses.

2. Obtain the company’s D&B report from Dun and Bradstreet. This report will reveal if the company is in the black, who members of its board of directors are, as well as other key corporate information.

3. Check with your state’s consumer affairs department for information. If the company has not registered with your state, find out where they are registered and call that state’s consumer affairs department.

4. Ask for references. If you still feel good about the company, get references. If they are solid, they will freely share that information. If the company is not willing to part with references, just move on to the next company on your list.

5. Ask friends and family members if they know of a specific quality debt settlement business.

You can thin your list by comparing their fees, by learning what impact a debt settlement loan will have on your credit rating, and determining how long you have to pay off your debt.

You can get out of the debt spiral if you choose a plan that works to your advantage.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

How Can A Pre-Settlement Loan Help My Case?

A pre-settlement loan can help you to win your case. Its that simple. These loans are designed to provide you with the funds to win your case, assuming that your case has the merit to do so. Most commonly, they are used to help those that have been victims of personal injury to get the funds that they need to pay their doctor’s bills, to pay them restitution and simply to have the satisfaction of knowing that those at fault have been penalized. Most importantly, a pre-settlement loan can help you to fund your lawsuit from the beginning to the end, so that you don’t have to drop out when you no longer have the funds to fight your battle.

Pre-Settlement: The Benefits It Provides

The benefits you can get from pre-settlement loans are easy to see. You can have access to the funds that you need to fund your case. But, what else can it do? There are a number of things. Consider these benefits to using these types of loans.

· If you have medical bills or need help making payments for your everyday living expenses, a pre-settlement loan can help you to make these payments so that you don’t lose your home. It can help to keep your life on track while you can’t.
· You can secure the help of an attorney that is experienced in your type of case so that you have a better chance are winning your case and getting your settlement.
· You will be able to see your case through. Many people that file legitimate lawsuits end up falling short of actually completing the suit because they run out of money to fund it. You don’t have to worry about this risk.
· You don’t have to pay the funds back if you lose. If you invest your own money in the lawsuit, there is no way for you to pull those funds back even if you do win your case. But, if you use a pre-settlement loan, you don’t have to pay the funds back if you lose the case. That’s security in and of itself.
· You can get the justice that you and your family deserve without having to risk all that your family owns on the process. You can simply borrow the funds to make these necessary investments and walk away knowing that you got the very best settlement that you could.

There are many different lenders that are now offing lawsuit loans or pre-settlement funding. They each offer you a variety of options in how much you can borrow and what it takes to secure this loan. While it isn’t for everyone, especially those that are filing less than ideal cases, for those that have a legitimate case and know that they will get a settlement, it can be the most important thing that you do. Find out if you qualify for this type of funding and get your lawsuit underway knowing that you have the resources to make it happen.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Structured Settlement Loans

Structured settlement loans are given against plaintiffs’ periodic claim settlements. Court judgments where a structured settlement is awarded are called periodic payment judgments. If a claimant has been awarded a financial resolution in which he or she will receive periodic payments instead of a lump sum, a loan may be extended against the value of the settlement.

Such loans are offered by many financial organizations specializing in legal funding. The practice is not held in very high esteem, since the laws concerning structured settlements are designed to protect the recipient from exploitation. However, the fact remains that funds received through a structured settlement represent a form of income, and loans against any sort of regular income are always available.

Availing of such a loan is often the only recourse open to a claimant for obtaining a substantial amount of money. A structured settlement is treated as a special income tax category and cannot be traded in for a lump sum settlement.

The laws surrounding structured settlements are rather specific, and obtaining a loan against them is not as easy as it may sound. Financiers who claim otherwise are usually not reliable. In legal terms, using a structured settlement as collateral for anything at all, including a loan of any kind may void the whole deal. Availing of such a loan is a matter best left to a knowledgeable attorney or law-savvy accountant.

In cases where loans are taken against a structured settlement, the purpose is usually not to obtain hard cash but to buy a house or some other asset. In such cases, the money coming from the settlement may be used to pay regular installments and would not represent a loan in the classic sense of the word.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Lawsuit Settlement Loans

In lawsuit settlement loans, the financer will buy a part of a plaintiff’s anticipated settlement so that the plaintiff can stay financially solvent until that date. Some financers provide a lawsuit settlement loan in exchange for a percentage of the plaintiff’s eventual recovery, but these financers are rapidly declining in popularity.

As with most legal loans of this type, the financer will not collect if the plaintiff fails to receive the anticipated settlement, so there is a high margin of risk involved for the lender. The financer carefully judges the validity of a case and the plaintiff’s potential for future settlement before a ‘non-recourse’ loan is extended.

The kinds of claims that usually qualify for lawsuit settlement loans include auto accidents, medical malpractice, premises liability (slip and fall), commercial litigation, product liability, maritime claims (Jones act), railroad claims (FELA) and personal injury or wrongful death.

Many finance institutions offering lawsuit settlement loans also help recipients by structuring the disbursement of the loan according to individual needs. A client may avail of such a loan personally or have an appointed advocate arrange for one. Lawsuit settlement loans come in handy to cover medical and living expenses, legal fees and other outlays that may be incurred while the plaintiff awaits final judgment of a case.

Owing to the nature of these loans, the financer usually does not conduct a credit checks and may not set parameters to income requirements to approve a loan. The sole criterion will always be the final amount recovered in the case of favorable settlement for the plaintiff.

Settlement Loans

A settlement loan is often the last resort for plaintiffs who have initiated a process of costly litigation and cannot afford to see the process to an end. There are many expenses that may be beyond a plaintiff’s normal paying powers including medical bills, fees payable to expert witnesses and private investigators, court fees, outstanding rent, lost wages, etc.

Since many litigation processes can extend over periods as long as two to four years, such expenses pile up and may eventually present an insurmountable financial burden to the plaintiff. Unavailability of funding may result in the abandonment of the legal process, causing untold losses.

Settlement loans are made available to these plaintiffs by certain financial institutions such as insurance companies. Private or professional underwriters may also fund expenses incurred by a plaintiff during legal proceedings. There may or may not be a collateral for such a loan, but they are always given in anticipation of the plaintiff’s legal victory.

Attorneys are required to inform their clients of the availability of these loans if it seems that they are needed. In other words, the legal system supports settlement loans. This makes their provision a rather lucrative business for providers.

Banks, as a rule, do not extend settlement loans to plaintiffs. This may be because the provision of a settlement loan boils down to little more than mercenary exploitation – a financing institution like an insurance company may take advantage of the plaintiff’s helpless state by offering to extend a barely sufficient sum at extremely high rates of interest.

Moreover, such financing may come with various strangleholds attached that aren’t reveled until the last possible moment, disregarding the fact that a plaintiff may incur regular expenses throughout the intervening period.