"Hey, Your Assets Are Mine For $50 Bucks!"
Due to the nearly total lack of financial privacy in the United States, your net worth and income can be obtained by any lawyer for $300 and sometimes as low as $50. Did you say as low as fifty bucks? This is known in the legal industry as an "asset search." It can't get any worse... can it? Well, listen to this.
I've heard that some former ambulance chasers have gotten diabolically smart. These con-men, desguised as attorneys, are now using computer search services to locate business owners and professionals with a high net worth or substantial liability insurance.
Guess what happens. That's right. When they a find a potential "victim", they proceed to contact their patients, clients or customers to see if any of them are disgruntled for ANY reason. And as they say in the sporting arena, "let the lawsuit games begin."
Also think about this: Do you have ANY former patients, clients, employees, partners, customers or spouses who MIGHT be angry enough OR tempted to sue you IF an enterprising lawyer looks them up and offers them a no-risk opportunity for some easy money? Come on... be honest with yourself. I thought so.
Real Estate: Are you holding ownership as a joint owner of property with any other family members? If so, the jointly owned property could be taken if either of you is sued for any reason. If it's really your property, it could be lost because of a claim against the other joint owner. But if the property really belongs to the joint owner - like a parent - their property could be taken if you are sued.
Rental property owners pay close attention:
If YOU do not have asset protection, you have just given all these
"professional extortioners" and their lawyers the green light to
"financially circumsize" you... and they will without
proper Lawsuit Information and Protection!
As you can see, even people NOT involved in businesses are constantly finding themselves embroiled in lawsuits. Remember, something as simple as a car accident; a neighbor injuring himself with the lawn mower he borrowed.
Maybe someone accusing you of sending malicious SPAM on the Internet OR a relative's greedy date claiming he or she made unwanted sexual advances when she or he was at a family picnic at his home can turn into $100,000 to $1,000,000 "problems." Friends, its immoral to leave your assets bare for the taking!
The FTC Crackdown Is Real
The Federal Trade Commission has charged the marketers of a dietary supplement called Coral Calcium Supreme with making false and unsubstantiated claims about the product's health benefits.
This action is part of a series of initiatives the FTC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are taking against the purveyors of products with unsubstantiated health and medical claims.
In a complaint filed in federal district court, the FTC alleges that Kevin Trudeau; Robert Barefoot; Shop America (USA), LLC; and Deonna Enterprises, Inc., violated the FTC Act by claiming, falsely and without substantiation, that Coral Calcium Supreme can treat or cure cancer and other diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and heart disease. The FTC charges that these and other claims go far beyond existing scientific evidence regarding the recognized health benefits of calcium.
In a separate action, the FTC has charged one of the defendants, Kevin Trudeau, with violating a 1998 federal district court order that prohibits him from making unsubstantiated claims about the benefits, performance, or efficacy of any products.
The FTC alleges that Trudeau violated that order by making false and unsubstantiated claims about Coral Calcium Supreme, and by making unsubstantiated claims that another product, Biotape, provides significant or permanent relief from severe pain, including debilitating back pain, and pain from arthritis, sciatica, and migraines.
In both of these actions, the FTC has asked the court for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the defendants from making the challenged claims and would freeze their assets.
In related law enforcement efforts, the FTC and the FDA are sending strong warning letters to Web site operators who are marketing coral calcium products claiming that coral calcium is an effective treatment or cure for cancer and/or other diseases.
In dozens of warnings sent this week, the FTC states it is aware of no competent and reliable scientific evidence supporting such claims and that such unsupported claims are unlawful under the FTC Act.
Accordingly, the FTC is instructing the Web site operators to remove any false or deceptive claims from their sites immediately. In a similar action, the FDA warned Web site operators that disease claims and unsubstantiated structure/function claims cause their products to be in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Lawsuit Information and Asset Protection is Needed More Now than Ever Before.
"FDA and FTC are working together to maximize our efforts to combat health fraud," said FDA Commissioner Mark B. McCellan. "We are trying to be particularly vigilant concerning fraudulent internet promotion, because this is emerging as an increasingly insidious way of trying to exploit the public."
The FTC and FDA had conducted Internet "surfs" and found numerous Web sites touting coral calcium products as an effective treatment or cure for cancer and other diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, and heart disease. The staffs of the two agencies will follow up by revisiting the target sites to determine whether the Web site operators gave deleted or revised the unproven claims.
The FTC vote to authorize filing of the cases was 5-0. The cases were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, on June 9, 2003.
Reference: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/06/trudeau.htm
The FTC can and will freeze assets under such investigations as the above article depicted. This not only involves the owners, but all who market such Internet Business Opportunities as affiliates. Which company will be sued next? Don't take needless risks.
Even though I'm not a lawyer, all this valuable information that I'm making available to you I learned first hand by working for lawyers in their research and marketing division. I have literally seen decent people lose everthing they've had time and time again.
Many of these suits have nothing to do with right and wrong, but instead, are predicated on the desire of one party to extract wealth from another party.
In most cases, this desire is not for real wealth but only a desire to extract small payments as "nuisance" settlements because it is cheaper to pay than to fight. Which is why most attorneys will advise to settle out of court.
Law Information and Lawsuit Protection
