Litigation

Structured settlement aper Woodbridge Investments claims that one of the advantages to working with it is the "talented and professional staff". Here's are selections from the work product of its "talented professional staff" as they appear on the Woodbridge Investments corporate web site:

"Whether you want to buy a new house, pay down old debt, pursue a business opportunity, or just free up more cash-flow, selling structured settlements to Woodbridge Settlement Funding can put your award to work today."

"Many plaintiffs who have won payment for damages are awarded a structured settlement, but it?s not always possible or advantageous to wait months, years?even a lifetime?to receive the full amount of the award.  If you have won a structured settlement in a lawsuit for any reason,"

FACT: You cannot be awarded a structured settlement, it is the result of a negotiated compromise.

"There are a few different ways that your payments may wind up structured settlements. One is if the judge in the case decrees that payments will be made in a specific way. Often, judges ask for payments to be made monthly to the injured party so that they can continue to take care of bills and hospital charges. The other way to get set payments out of the money owed to you is to have a structured settlement broker sell your claim to a company that specializes in purchasing structured settlements."

FACTS:

(1) Payments don't "wind up" structured settlements. Structured settlements are comprised of a series of future periodic payments.

(2) Judicial approval is not needed for structured settlements in many cases

(3) Judges are generally NOT financial planners or settlement planners

(4) In approving or rejecting a settlement a Judge reviews (among other things) the plaintiff's petition, the plaintiff attorney's afirmation, the guardian ad litem report (if applicable), the medical reports (if applicable)

(5) What Woodbridge misrepresents as a structured settlement ("The other way to get set payments out of the money owed to you is to have a structured settlement broker sell your claim to a company that specializes in purchasing structured settlements.") describes a structured settlement factoring transaction NOT a structured settlement transaction. Whether by intention or through the ignorance of its "talented and professional staff", Woodbridge Investments is incorrect!

(6)While companies, like Woodbridge Investments, continue to misrepresent to consumers that they purchase structured settlements, what they purchase is actually the rights to receive structured settlement payments.

(7) Legitimate structured settlement brokers, even those that work for the defense, do not "sell claims". Among other things, they must first gain and understand of the facts of a particular case, discuss and assess the claimant or plaintiff's needs, design a solution to fit those needs, discuss that solution with the plaintiff and their other advisors, place the "qualified funding asset" and cooordinate the follow-through on the implementation.

Woodbridge Investments claims to have helped over 1,000 people gain access to their future payments since 1993.  That number includes ALL sorts of factoring, not just structured settlements. That works only 66.66 people annually (1,000/15), or just over 5 people a month (66.66/12). And they also advertise that they have paid out millions of dollars in commissions which, by reading it literally and doing the mathematics, can only mean that some financial advisors were simply paid off handsomely in exchange for business. Woodbridge Investments (a/k/a the Carnival Kings") led by "ringmaster" Bob Shapiro , have offered prizes based on a "more you sell (i.e. the more you implode your long term financial stability), the more you get" to structured settlement annuitants, young adults, seniors, many of whom are profoundly injured people.

The company's embedded contextual news feed on its Woodbridge Advantage web page reports of a March 1, 2008 Moody's negative watch on 2,000 structured-finance instruments. Clicking through to the article reveals that the story is about municipal bonds NOT structured settlements. Yet the placement on the Woodbridge page misleads consumers because of the shortcomings of the program that Woodbridge Investments has employed. The feature should be removed from its web page.

Much has been made over the "unauthorized practice of law" to protect consumers. How about the "unauthorized practice of insurance"? Woodbridge Investments falsely advertises that it is a good proven structured settlement broker. Woodbridge Investments is not a structured settlement broker. Woodbridge Investments does not place "qualified funding assets".

Should consumers be working with a company that does not seem to know its business or ours?