Who’s Who In Law 25
Ponte Vedra Recorder · November 12, 2015
Beaches lawyer thwarts scammers
John Miller, founding attorney of
Rock Solid Business Law on Osceola
Avenue in Jacksonville Beach, recently received the kind of inquiry
through his firm’s website that all
businesses hope for. Along with real
estate and estate planning, Miller specializes in business transactional law,
and can help businesses purchase and
sell major pieces of equipment. Miller
received a simple inquiry from a foreign corporation asking if business
law was part of his area of specialty,
and requesting his hourly rate. Miller
responded affirmatively and the prospective client acknowledged that the
hourly rate was reasonable. The client
then began to request work of Miller.
Miller, having attended fraud prevention seminars, follows a strict protocol
of requiring that the firm be retained
through a Representation Agreement
and that a retainer be placed prior
to any work commencing. The prospective client agreed and entered a
contract to employ the law firm. The
prospective client indicated that a
deposit would be mailed to the firm
from which the retainer money was to
be taken. Miller advised that the firm
was willing to follow this procedure,
as long as express permission was
given by the depositing party that a
portion of the funds received be used
for a retainer. The prospective client
had no objection to this procedure. A
day or two later, an overnight delivery package arrived from a company
in Niagara Falls, Canada. The corporation which had initially contacted
Miller was not a Canadian company,
but was based in Asia.
The check was dutifully deposited
in a trust account at a beach branch of
a National Bank. The branch manager
advised Rock Solid that there would
be a hold placed upon all but $5000
of the funds before the funds were all
cleared in about 10 days. Miller in
tern advised the banker that no funds
from the check would be utilized in
till they had cleared in full.
Almost immediately, the international client emailed Miller to instruct
that a portion of the funds (less than
$5000) be forwarded to a fourth party,
located in south Florida. Miller advised that no funds would be transferred until they had cleared the account and were released by the bank.
Rock Solid personnel continued to
contact the bank to determine the
status of the check. The bank continued to acknowledge that it would
take 10 days to assure that the funds
had cleared. On the ninth day, Miller
again received instruction that nearly
$5000 be transferred to a vendor with
respect to the purchase of a dredger,
a large piece of industrial equipment.
Miller again declined to transfer the
funds unless and until the bank had
cleared them.
The next day, the bank called Rock
Solid personnel to advise that the
check had been written on an account
which had been frozen. There were
no funds available. Thereafter, Miller
received another communication stating that the buyer had advised the
prospective client that the funds had
left the buyer’s account and to check
to see if funds were available. At this
point, Miller advised the client that the
funds were not available and that no
legal services would be performed.
“Thankfully, I had been to continuing legal education courses where
I had heard about such attempts at
fraud.” said said Miller “However, I really just had a bad feeling about this
from the start, and wanted to be sure
that these guys didn’t steal any money from us. I hope that by coming
forward and telling our story, we will
help other businesses not fall victim to
fraudsters like this.”
Subsequent research by a paralegal
at Rock Solid revealed that the “dredger scam” is widespread and reported
on the Internet. It is unfortunate that
the connectivity of the world allows
frauds like this to come to our beaches.
Diagnosing the impact on patients
when trusted doctors sell a practice
Some may struggle with the change, says attorney for physicians
Is it time to sell your structured settlement for cash?
(NewsUSA) - It seemed like a good
idea at the time.
Maybe you were in an auto accident,
and for whatever reason -- taxes spring
to mind -- you agreed to forgo a large,
lump-sum payout from the other driver’s
insurance company in favor of small periodic payments. Or maybe your child was
born with a birth defect that Big Pharma
was held legally liable for, and all you
could think about was making sure the
money to care for him would be flowing
in for decades.
Whatever the case, you’ve decided that
“structured settlement,” as it’s called, no
longer works for you.
Now what?
“Sometimes cashing in is the only option,” says Bankrate.com. “That $500
monthly payment from an accident in
2002 may have helped with the medical bills early on, but if the beneficiary
has now lost his job and is on the verge
of losing a home, a lump-sum payout of
$50,000 may seem quite enticing.”
In fact, an estimated $6 billion in structured settlements are bought or sold in
any given year. Not all players are alike,
though, so you’ll want to be sure you
don’t just automatically call the 1-800
number you saw in some come-on TV
ad.
One new web-based entry in the fie