It's All About The Money
By Rob Lambert - 
Email Editor
Date : February 14, 2008
Litigation is all about money. That is why Asset Protection Planning works so well. It removes the economic incentive to litigate.
Frequent readers know that I regard the typical plaintiff’s attorney as a not-too-distant cousin to the common burglar. Recently in an L.A. courtroom, one of the leaders of this pack of thieves got his just desserts. |
Most of you have heard of William Lerach or at least his cases. He was famous for searching out plaintiffs that would then be used to plunder and mutilate some of the largest companies in the world including Xerox Corp., United Airlines, Beverly Hills Savings & Loan Assn. and dozens of other companies. This big shot thief (sometimes referred to as a “lion” by his colleagues in the plaintiff’s bar) was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday for his part in a kickback scheme involving class-action lawsuits. He collected a little more than a quarter billion dollars in fees in the last two decades on behalf of artificially manufactured plaintiffs.
Mr. Lerach pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and admitted to paying more than $11 million in kickbacks to the plaintiffs he bribed to become class members. I don’t think he will lose any of his homes or the private jet; however, he will forfeit a little more than $7 million and be forced to spend two years writing his autobiography in Club Fed.
This doesn’t change the landscape. For every scumbag, shake-down litigator to go down, ten more crop up. It is just too easy and lucrative to use our out of control and largely unregulated legal system to extort money from those who have it.
At least in this case, justice was done.
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ABOUT THIS EDITOR:
Rob Lambert, Founder and former law professor is considered to be foremost expert on tax compliant asset protection structures. A contributing editor to Lexus Nexus debtor creditors series of law books Rob's passion is implement client wealth plans that stand the test of time and hold up under duress.
02 FEBRUARY
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