Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Federal Judiciary Blogs -> California Appellate Report

Federal Judiciary

: California Appellate Report

321 Henderson Receivables v. Ramos & Red Tomahawk (Cal. Ct. App. - March 18, 2009)

By Shaun Martin

Today's a big day for 321 Henderson Receivables Organization, which is a huge player in the California structured settlement market. That market basically consists of entities (like 321 Henderson) who buy up structured settlements -- e.g., tort annuities -- and give the recipients a lump sum. There's a big business in this area, proof of which can be obtained merely by watching various commercials on late-night television. And 321 Henderson has obtained judicial approval for over two thousand of these settlements in California.

Lately, however, some judges up in Fresno have been denying otherwise-routine judicial approval, which prompted 321 Henderson to file multiple appeals. Thus far today, the resolution of those appeals has taken up 100% of today's published opinions by the California Court of Appeal (see here and here). And in each of these cases, 321 Henderson prevails.

So today's a big victory for those entities who make a profit on tort victims desperate for a lump sum. I'd feel better about that, quite frankly, if the margins on this business were a lot smaller than they are. However, when you've got a sophisticated business negotiating with a typically uneducated and desperate consumer over something as complex as the appropriate discount rate for a structured annuity, you can probably figure out as well as I can who gets the best of those transactions and by what margin. And why those commercials more than pay for themselves.

Full post as published by California Appellate Report on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).