Stradling Lawyers Secure $30K in Additional Funds for Pro Bono Client

Stradling recently obtained additional funds of over $30,600 for a pro bono client . We were brought into the case over two years ago by the Public Law Center. Our client is a Spanish-speaking laborer supporting a family of five. He had fallen victim to an orchestrated scheme enticing lower-income individuals to part with their hard-earned money on the pretense of a quick profit in a supposed house "flipping” investment.  Defendants falsely represented that our client would be the owner of the property, that the loan on the property would be taken out in his name, and that the use of the funds for the alleged “down payment” on the loan for the property was to be to the benefit of him by securing his ownership in the property – all of which turned out to be false.

In late December 2023, after a series of successful discovery and trial motions, Stradling obtained a significant settlement from two defendants.  Those settlements provided our client with a considerable upfront payment followed by a stream of monthly payments.

The Stradling team then turned to collecting on default judgments we had previously obtained against other defendants.  The team successfully secured Writs of Execution against various bank accounts, and filed Abstracts of Judgments against real property owned by the defaulted parties. With their assets at risk the defaulting parties decided they would like to participate in the litigation after all, and retained counsel to challenge the property seizures and attempt to vacate the default. On the eve of court hearings on defendants’ various motions, our team negotiated a settlement requiring defendants to consent to the release of over $30,000 in levied funds to our client.  This result was particularly significant as the settling parties never actually received a monetary benefit from their involvement in the fraud. In all, we have recovered cash settlements totaling approximately 75% of our client's losses.