James Gordon's Research Featured on HBO's Last Week Tonight

HBO's May 17 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver featured RJLF lawyer James Gordon's research on structured settlement reform. The episode examines structured settlements, which are valuable long-term periodic payments often provided to victims of serious personal injuries, and the predatory industry that has developed to exploit them.

James's Columbia Law Review Note, "Enforcing and Reforming Structured Settlement Protection Acts: How the Law Should Protect Tort Victims," identifies a central problem: recipients of structured settlements cannot simply decide to cash out their future payments. Oliver highlights how this limitation has fueled the rise of "factoring companies" such as J.G. Wentworth, Stone Street Capital, and Access Funding. These companies aggressively target injured individuals with valuable settlements and offer immediate lump-sum payouts in exchange for years of guaranteed payments.

As the episode explains, these transactions are often financially devastating. After steep discount rates and fees, many sellers receive only pennies on the dollar, with most losing 60 percent or more of the total value of their settlements. Oliver points to James's Note to highlight how the legal system designed to protect these victims from financial exploitation has failed to do so. Although transfers require judicial approval, hearings frequently last only minutes and provide little meaningful protection: judges approve more than 95 percent of transfer petitions, and by 2015, tort victims had collectively surrendered $13 billion in settlement value in exchange for just $5 billion in cash.

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/LcrDC4ftXgM?si=UqWsPgUZ4Ecl5I0L