Litigation

The case of Elizabeth B. Pressman and Pressman Settlements Corporation should be a lesson for any settlement consultant, not to mention ANY insurance professional. Know the laws of the state in which you are conducting business, BEFORE you start doing business there.  Failure to adhere to the law whether through ignorance or carelessness can be costly.

So far, according to our research, this "business lesson" has cost Pressman One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500.00), taking into account the temporary license suspension and Florida penalty of $1,000.00 AND the New York state penalty of $500.00

In The Matter of Pressman Settlements Corporation Case: 93629-08-AG  dated January 11, 2008  Download Pressman Settlements Consent Order Case 93629-08-AG Florida 1-11-2008

Pressman has been careless in my opinion. What will be the total cost of carelessness?  Will the State of Florida move on the lack of registration of the business entity with the Secretary of State and the filing of annual reports during the years the entity would have been required to have been registered. 

Here's the law:

Florida Business Organizations Code Section 607.1503-Corporations-

Here's an example of the form that would have had to have been filed along with $70.00 :

Application for certificate of authority

CR2E007 Application By Foreign Corporation For Authorization To Transact Business In Florida - Florida

Here is the FAQ for filing online annual reports  https://efile.sunbiz.org/ubrintro.html

Corporations must file these annually. A penalty may be assessed for not filing an annual report in timely fashion.

The above also begs the question of what other states is Pressman individually, or as an entity, licensed in? Don't state renewal forms ask whether you have been subject to an administrative proceeding. Has Pressman been "as conscientious" with other states? For example, in Ohio where there she has a professional license the Department says that an agent is required to notify the department of administrative proceedings in timely fashion. Furthermore,  the online records for Elizabeth B. Pressman appear to show the invalid business address which suggests the incorrect business affiliation below Download Ohio Dept of Insurance - Ag..

Upon information and belief Ms. Pressman has not been affiliated with Settlement Professionals, Inc. or used that business address since early 2005.  According to Ohio Administrative Code 3901-5-09 (D)(6) "an agent must report to the department all demographic changes (i.e. name, resident address, business address, mailing address, etc.) within 30 days of the change".

Pressman Settlements Corporation is also licensed in Arizona. According to a conversation today with the Arizona Department of Insurance, the recent New York Insurance disciplinary action was disclosed by Pressman on August 4, 2009 in timely fashion. Has a valuable business lesson been learned? The Florida consent order however, was not disclosed by Pressman until November 19, 2008, more than 10 months after it was entered. The Arizona statute also has a 30 day notice requirement. Fortunately for Pressman and others who fail to timely comply,  the State of Arizona employee told this author that Arizona does not have the resources to enforce these laws.

For those horrified by the "caught in the headlights" reporting of Pressman's situation, please note that the information presented is a matter of public record. It is worth noting there has been a dramatic increase in traffic to the Pressman Settlements Corporation website since the story broke. According to Alexa the 7 day traffic rank has risen to 2,000,000 or so from a 3 month average of over 11,000,000.

On the other hand Arizona's lack of resources to enforce its own laws may lead to further breaches of the laws by others.