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Favour. The judgment lien immediately attaches to all realEstate in your name, all bank accounts and other assets. A lien acts like a mortgage or a trust deed. You can't sell or Refinance a property without paying off the creditor, and he can Foreclose on the real estate and seize any accounts in your Name. A creditor with a judgment lien clearly holds all of the cards. You have no room to negotiate. Certainly that isn't the Position you want to be in when you deal with an adversary. Part II ... that isn't the position you want to be in when you deal with An adversary. One of our clients, Ed, was a wealthy real-estate investor and owned five apartment buildings worth about $3 Million. Although he was involved in a lawsuit concerning a Property dispute at the time, he felt he had little exposure. We Set up a plan for him using several limited liability companies to hold the properties. A year later, Ed told us that he'd lost the case and there was a judgment against him for $1.5 million. Had he not set up the plan, he'd have been in big trouble. The plaintiff would've had a lien on all of the client's real estate, worth $3 million, as security for the judgment. The property would've been frozen and then seized. The plaintiff wouldn't Have taken a cent less than the full amount of the judgment. Nothing to talk about or discuss - just pay up. That's a bad Position to be in. But because Ed was a smart guy, he wasn't in a bad position. Since all of his assets had been transferred into the plan, the judgment lien didn't affect the properties. Ed was free to sell, refinance, collect rents and deal with his property just like he'd Always done. Since the creditor had no security for his Judgment and stood to collect nothing, Ed now had the Leverage to negotiate a favourable settlement. He settled the case for $75,000 - clearly a better result than losing the $1.5 Million. In this case, the proper asset protection plan changed the relative bargaining power of each side. Ed could've been Weak and vulnerable, but instead was able to negotiate from a Position of strength. Another client, an architect, had savings of about $80,000 which he'd inherited from his mother. Architects have a high Lawsuit risk. Sure enough, within two years of setting up a Protection plan with us, my client was served with a lawsuit. The Plaintiff attempted to get a pre-judgment attachment of the Savings, but the judge ruled that the assets were properly protected and couldn't be reached by a lien. Without any assurance of payment, the plaintiff's attorney quickly lost interest and the case was settled for under $2,000. These examples illustrate the importance of protecting assets From pre-judgment attachments and judgment liens. I suggest you Consider making an appointment with one of the members of our Team to talk about how we can help you protect your own assets. Listening 2 Ms Hall: So, Mr Berger, perhaps we should get started. Mr Berger: Of course. Ms Hall: How did you find out about our firm, and about the position? Mr Berger: Well, your firm is very well known - even in Date: 2015-12-11; view: 775
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