Villadom Times Weekly Newpaper Online-November 24, 2010 Issue

November 24, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 9 Lawsuit Financing Firm Prospers Amid Gloom As the economy weakens, J a e s o n Birnbaum’s business gets stronger. Sevenyear-old Cash4Cases Inc. is one of a growing BIRNBAUM number of companies - not without controversy - that advance money to people waiting for the outcome or payout from a lawsuit, most commonly personal injury, product liability or medical malpractice. Birnbaum, a lawyer from Upper Saddle River, charges a hefty interest rate - generally 3 percent a month - on the advance. He funds the operation with bank loans, and, more recently, capital from investors - to whom, he says, he pays 12 percent interest. Birnbaum said he has seen a surge in willing lenders and advance recipients lately, as financially strapped litigants look for short-term cash and investors seek an alternative to the plummeting financial markets. “You hear so much gloom in the media,” said Birnbaum, 36, whose company has offices in New York, Florida and Boston. “In our business, it’s a great time for us.” Birnbaum, who grew up in Saddle River, said he started the business after he found it tough to attract clients for a New York personal injury firm he started with three friends. Cash advance companies had frequently approached him looking for clients, said Birnbaum, who figured he could start a similar business. The business, which started with four employees in 2003, now has 19. The company has so far paid more than 200 advances totaling about $7 million, Birnbaum said. To limit risk, he said, Cash4Cases generally advances no more than 10 percent of the client’s expected settlement. “We are very conservative,” he added. The practice has attracted little interest from New Jersey authorities, but has come under scrutiny in other states. In 2005, then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer settled with nine cash advance companies after his office said it became concerned that some arrangements “could exploit consumers due to the complex nature of the transaction.” The settlement required the companies, from New York, Nevada and Illinois, to more clearly set out the terms of the advance and the amount to be repaid, and required them to give borrowers a five-day period to cancel the deal. Birnbaum said he used to pay investors 17 percent interest on a loan, but recently reduced the rate to 12 percent when the return on investments elsewhere declined. And there is no shortage of clients looking for cash, he said. Over the last couple of months he’s seen the “largest growth, on both ends of the spectrum,” he said. “People really need the money!” To contact Jaeson Birnbaum, Esq. call 201-684-1060 or email JLB@cash4cases.com Franklin Lakes Ordinance would prohibit smoking on public streets by Frank J. McMahon A new ordinance introduced by the Franklin Lakes Borough Council would, if adopted at the council’s December public meeting, prohibit smoking or carrying lighted tobacco within the public areas located on certain streets adjoining the Medco Health Solutions Inc. property. That site is located on Parsons Pond Road between Wyckoff Avenue in Mahwah and Old Mill Road in Franklin Lakes. The ordinance covers the public areas on Old Mill Road from Lawlins Road to Arbor Road, Arbor Road, Hobar Court, Beechwood Place, Woodside Avenue from Old Mill Road to Beechwood Place, Parsons Pond Road, Stonewall Court, Lenapi Drive, and Lawlins Road. The ordinance would not prohibit smoking or carrying lighted tobacco in a moving motor vehicle operating on those roadways, but smoking in a parked motor vehicle on those roadways would constitute a violation. Smoking or carrying lighted tobacco within the borough’s tennis court recreation area on Old Mill Road, including the tennis courts, the playground, and the parking lot on Old Mill Road would also be prohibited. Tobacco is defined in the ordinance as any product made from the tobacco plant, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, and snuff, for the purpose of smoking, chewing, inhaling, and any other personal use. A public area is defined as any public park or recreation area, vacant land, public building, any roadway including the street right-of-way or parking lot that is open to the public and is owned, leased, or operated by the borough. The ordinance targets the streets surrounding the Old Mill Road entrance to the Medco Health Solutions Inc., property because Medco has decided to make all its corporate properties smoke-free, and that move has prompted Medco employees who want to smoke to walk off the company’s property to Old Mill Road in order to smoke. That has created a problem for Medco neighbors, some of whom have told the borough council that Medco employees now leave their cigarette butts on the street and adjacent properties and leave a tobacco smoke smell in their yards. The tennis court area on Old Mill Road was included in the ordinance because the council believes some Medco employees are traveling in their cars to that area in order to smoke. The proposed ordinance has been discussed at several council meetings, and Franklin Lakes Borough Administrator Gregory Hart has advised the governing (continued on page 10) �� Reprinted with the permission of the Bergen Record Start earning income immediately with our ﬁxed income product! The Cash4Cases Investment Fund (CIF) offers 12 percent interest per year to our investors, paid on a monthly basis. For more information please contact, Jaeson Birnbaum, Esq.: 212-684-1060. C C � �� The Sharp Shop, Inc. 251 Godwin Avenue Midland Park, NJ 07432 201-444-3646 ��