Being sued big time! if?
 

If you were being sued for damages, for huge amounts of money, can you quickly liquidate your assets for your defense?

I have the perfect protection against lawsuits. I'm poor.

Well, I just had to word it a different way!

Normally, yes. The opponent may place a lien on real property that is arguably in dispute (lis pendens). But you should be able to sell your stocks, spoons, guns, etc.

The retirement is solid, House is off limits, Porsches and Aircraft were sold to Pops and I have the cash to prove it! Well the Attorney does.

This is all Hypothetical, I am not being sued, but in this age of sue happy people you never know, how do you protect yourself? Seems like OJ had it figured out pretty good!

This seems like a good idea until your dad gets sued ;)
AM

INAL (I'm not a lawyer), but in specific cases the issue of "fraudulent conveyance" may apply if you are selling or transferring assets to another party to avoid collection or liquidation of that asset by someone who has a known potential or pending claim against you.

FWIW.

Yes. If the transfer is made for the purpose of avoiding attachment, many jurisdictions will set it aside on some sort of fraudulent conveyance theory.

I thought incorporating would protect me from that, but, was I wrong. Sadly I am going through this and my lawyer motioned to have the charges against myself and an employee personally thrown out and only against the corporation left in tact. No go.

Sometimes I feel like there is some sort of game being played.

In Florida your home is safe but your income is not, you can have a lien put on it.

Sure, it could technically be a fraudulent conveyance, but so what?

Say you have a $2 million house (like snowman!), owned outright.

You are getting sued for 100 million. The plaintiff isn't quick enough to get a lien or anything on it, so you list it for $1.5 million through a broker, some guy comes along and buys it, you close and get the cash.

Now the cash disappears.

What's the creditor going to do when he gets a judgment a year or two from now?

A fraudulent conveyance only really works when you can sue the transferee, i.e., the person who took the asset. Like if you had a house and you transferred it to your mom.

To answer what I have emphasized in bold above, make that person's life miserable for as long as the creditor wants? The "making the cash disappear" part is the problem, IMO.

Personally, I would not recommend the scenario you have outlined above and I am not assuming you are recommending it either. :)

Been there, done that, yes, as long as you don't try & hide it. But after the lawsuit, it is much better not to excist.

Some people have really been ripped, for trying to shelter, hide or even transfer assets after being served notice. If someone was going to do this type of thing and have less worries about "breaking the law" by the sheltering of assets, it all really needs to be done BEFORE any type of problem comes up. This is why there are some very well off people, but in real life on paper, they appear just about destitute being everything they have is already out of their name.

1) Shoot all the lawyers in sight.
2) reload.
3) shoot some more of em.

Or just give the lawyers everything you have and let them have a feeding frenzy.
That's prolly how it will end up anyway.

I've been the victim of a frivolous lawsuit, stood to lose $ hundreds of thousands.
Luckily their lawyer screwed up and mine didn't so he proved they were making the whole thing up. Still cost me $14k to prove that they were lying about everything. Nice system.

Amen.


I have spent close to 20K so far and I have not done anything wrong. I am only guilty of owning a corporation. The charges are trumped up and the guilty party has not even had a lawsuit files because he is dirt poor.

I am trying not to let this go to trial because I will easily be out another 25K.

All for nothing and if I cannot recoup my legal fees I might go insane.

Guilty until proven innocent and you better have the money to prove it.

Hmm...I have a great attorney if anyone in Calif. is going through this scenario that Jim and others have mentioned.

I agree you have to move before the complaint is filed.


Edit: I am deleting part of my comment, because I live in litigious California.

I know what I'd do!

I thought (in California), X-number of thousands of your house is offlimits; thereafter, it could be taken as part of judgement?

I plead the 5th but I've heard there are offshore accounts where you can put items in safe deposit boxes that back most currency.

Or bearer bonds under your family name, (moms maiden name) in a country that recognizes dual citizenship, (retain a lawyer there).

My wife still thinks I have it all buried in a hole in the yard. Most of "that" cash I spent as quick as it rolled in.

Had an interesting yutt, it is what is was, can't undo the past.

I sold my last house to a freshly graduated lawyer studying for the bar. About two months after the sale, he sued me for every single thing that we agreed to disagree on, that we gave back money in escrow and that we disclosed. All in writing in some form. I went for a summary judgment and the judge told me those were matters of fact for the jury to decide, not matters of law (like did he miss a statute of limitations) for him to decide. A very rude awakening to the judicial system in this country. Disclose everything like they say and then spend $100K in court proving that you disclosed it in escrow. In the end, I gave the piece of scum $5K to go away and $30K to my useless lawyer.