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LiabilityCheckUp™ What is your legal or tax exposure? Do you really know “What’s Legal or What’s Not?”™ If you are simply relying on lawyers or risk managers who have not litigated in the courts, you may be exposed. Are you complying with “Best Standards” or “Best Practices”? Then you may be exposed! That’s right best standards offer little or no protection from trial lawyers and the risk of large jury verdicts. You should be complying with “Optimal Best Practices” and “Optimal Best Standards” not mere best practices. Just check the trial verdict sheets so see the material risks you are not mitigating. If use of a “reasonable alternative” is the test, and a jury will subjectively decide that question, is your industry (company or executives) overexposed? The reality is all industries, professions, companies and individuals are overexposed. That should not shock you. It’s the reasons that should. Whether you own or run a small company or large Fortune 500, you must stop ignoring the true extent of legal and tax liability exposure. News laws and new Traps and Trends™ in law and tax will increase your liability greatly over the next decade or two. Why? *New laws that impute “factual presumptions” will shock the due process of our union. To the extent that the congressional trend in law continues or materializes, individuals as well as small and large multinational companies will incur great exposure, expense or loss. [See our reports on LawUncertainty™, TaxUncertainty™, AssetProtectionUncertainty™, BankruptcyUncertainty™ and InternationalLawUncertainty™.] *Are the laws and lawyers too aggressive? [No matter what your position is on this question, exposure is increasing not decreasing, due in part to your own failure to implement optimal best practices with the use or disclosure of reasonable state of the art alternatives. We are at a time in history where business must step up and “refine” its products, methods, services and presence in society.] *Are business executives underestimating the exposure? Are business executives simply using the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? Are risk mitigation policies just telling the company executives what they want to hear? Are business executives ignoring exposure? Misinformed? Not aware? [What ever the motivation or situation, it will be the reason you lose in court. Trial lawyers live on your excuses, justifications and “lack of use or disclosure of reasonable (state of the art) alternatives” Jurors who think that an available “reasonable” state of the art alternative should have been used or disclosed, may impose that burden over your expert’s (bias) judgment.] One Industry Example: Let’s look at the mortgage banking industry since they are recently in the news and about to be under the microscope over the next few years. Lending industry participants are holding conferences wherein instead of discussing their exposure in the marketplace (and with Wall Street), they spend 75% of their time at the conference pointing the finger at the consumer (borrower). Without comment on that point, this will cost them dearly. Why? (1) New laws aimed at Lenders/Brokers are coming down the line like a runaway freight train {and their apparent strategy is to deny that they owe a (suitability) duty} (2) Legal judgments or settlements are already staggering, but the industry fails to conference this material issue. For example, on our LendingLiabilityCheckUpReport™ before the May 2007 subprime lending conference we attended, our associates in one law firm alone had long reported verdicts for Predatory Lending Lawsuits of $580,975,000; $50,005,000; $45,000,000; $34,500,000; $2,000,000; $1,600,000; and settlements of $4,100,000; $1,750,000; $1,500,000; $1,240,962; $1,100,000; and $1,000,000. (3) Worse yet for the Lending / Broker professions industry, Wall Street is not sitting around waiting to lose-their-shirt in this recent SubPrime Default & Foreclosure Meltdown. Wall Street has implemented a policy of demand and litigation against the Lenders for buy-backs of bad loans. We call this BUYBACKLITIGATION. This move has the potential to allow Wall Street to buy the bad and good loan portfolios for pennies on the dollar in bankruptcy court. The kicker is, they will do so without the liability exposure, leaving the risk and liability to the Lenders/Brokers. Talk about follow the money! That area itself will be subject to huge litigation challenges for “public policy violations” to say the least. Lending/Broker Industry Lesson: This tells you among many things, that huge awards are probable especially when pushed to trial! It also tells you that Wall Street is making an end run around liability, leaving the Lending/Broker industry holding the bag. Lender/Brokers are you ready for this? What is this your risk mitigation policy? Well it won’t work very well over the next decade. It’s time for the Lenders and Brokers to open there eyes and consider Optimal Best Practices. Lenders and Brokers need an immediate LiabilityCheckUp! These type of results will be found in every industry or profession including: Developers / Owners / Builders Service: Liability CheckUp™ is a service offered by attorney Richard Ivar Rydstrom’s consulting group which reviews your risk mitigation or management policies, or advises directly on certain risk matters, including protection devices and techniques which encompass policy changes regarding operations, management, reasonable alternatives, state of the art or trade options, green options, new legal, tax, green or clean alternatives, among other matters. This service is for SMALL, MEDIUM, OR LARGE COMPANIES, or owners, shareholders or persons in charge. Contact:
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