Suing Doctors is Like “Shootin’ Fish in a Barrel”

A famous lawyer once bragged that Suing doctors for profit is like shooting fish in a barrel. Was he right? Ask a physician. Forty percent of doctors have already been sued. No one in the healthcare industry is safe from litigation.

Why, you may wonder, do physicians, dentists and chiropractors rank among the top targets of predatory attorneys in the world’s most litigious society? For one thing, medical professionals are viewed as having deep pockets. As Willy Sutton answered when he was asked why he robbed banks, that’s where the money is.
Equally important to those health professionals targeted for potential financial ruin is the fact that unprotected wealth is perilously vulnerable to being sucked into an outrageously dysfunctional U.S. tort system. Today, Americans are suing Americans to the tune of over $300 billion a year, with only about 10% of it attributable to medical malpractice lawsuits!

But medical professionals have more to worry about than malpractice complaints. Today’s healthcare professionals must also contend with other potentially ruinous lawsuits, including:

• Frivolous charges of negligence.
• Discrimination or sexual harassment claims from employees.

All of this has fostered a growing fear among individuals whose vulnerability to predatory litigation seems to expand in direct proportion to their success. Fear of liability has become the defining feature of our culture, according to noted lawyer-author Philip K. Howard. What has prompted this culture of fear? Let’s take a brief look at some of the issues.

• Out-of-control lawsuits
• Emotion-led juries
• Compliant results-oriented judges
• Skyrocketing judgments that can easily exceed insurance coverage, particularly in malpractice cases

Lodmell & Lodmell asset protection planning typically has at its core two important legal structures that are client-customized and carefully integrated to legitimately shield accumulated wealth against a vigorous creditor attack.

Asset Management Limited Partnership ™ (AMLP)

The first of these sophisticated tools is the  well-known AMLP, formerly known as a Family Limited Partnership. This is the most popular legal tool for domestic asset protection available today. It’s the tool that keeps you and your wealth legally separated and protected from those who would take it away.

The Bridge Trust ®

If sued, a second key tool kicks in. This is a less well-known and more sophisticated Asset Protection Trust that creates a strong lawsuit deterrent. The Bridge Trust ® is a creatively constructed, tax-neutral U.S. grantor trust, and this legal entity pulls the AMLP’s assets out of the jurisdiction of U.S. courts when triggered by a lawsuit threat.

In essence, these powerful tools build a legal fortress around a client’s vulnerable assets, placing them, when necessary, in jurisdictions beyond the reach of predator attorneys and lawsuit-happy plaintiffs. The real value of such planning is:

• Formidable ability to deny unwanted access to a client’s valuable assets
• Retention of beneficial ownership of the Trust’s assets by the client
• Continuation of the client’s distributive rights with respect to those assets

Despite years of court-tested effectiveness and the well-documented benefits of legitimate asset planning, research reported in Trusts & Estates magazine has concluded:

• Most lawyers surveyed admit they need to know more about asset protection.
• Two-thirds of the lawyers indicated asset protection would probably play an increasing role in their law practices in the coming years.

Likewise, most CPAs lack the in-depth knowledge of legitimate asset protection planning that they need to appropriately advise their clients on the pros and cons of this relatively new field of law.

However, please do not misunderstand; asset protection does not (and should not) conceal assets from legitimate creditors or hide income from the Internal Revenue Service. Unfortunately, some lawyers and their clients may attempt to do just that. The Government has a word for that type of planning. It’s called fraud and tax evasion. Legitimate asset protection protects a client’s assets from abusive litigation, not cheat the Government by evading income taxes. Unlike schemes that promise huge tax benefits, legitimate asset protection plans are income-tax neutral. Period.