The article mentions this, but says that they often aren't incapacitated enough to void the agreements -- which puts them in a strange gray area. It's similar to scams that prey on the elderly.
Perhaps a class action lawsuit with many such victims assembled will be compelling enough in size that a law firm will take the case on a contingency basis.
Perhaps there can be a "bidding" system if the victims can self organize and then look for a law firm to represent them -- kind of like how architecture firms win contracts?
Besides ethical reasons, it's in everyone's best interest to make sure that poor people don't get abused in this way because when they end up needing social services (shelter, food, medical aid, etc.) that help comes from every tax payer's money.
The kinds of cases where you see plaintiffs getting coupons and lawyers making bank are those with a lot of plaintiffs who were each harmed a very small amount.
Also in the article, the victims often have large debts, and one of the main reasons in their signed statement is to get out from under their burden of debt. In some cases they feel like they need $50k now no matter the long-term cost.
> That’s how 42-year-old Tarsha Simms recently reconciled her decision to sell a portion of her daughter’s settlement to Access Funding. “I do regret it,” Simms said. “But if it wasn’t for this deal, we would be on the street right now.”
So what's the fix? Take away all freedom regarding management and spending of their money?
I get countless emails/calls from clients checking whether the domain registration letter they've got is legit. They're smart people but they're not familiar with domains. I'd hate to think of how many people fall for those things.
Personally, I wish that there was more due process around this sort of thing. So, for instance, as part of the settlement a lawyer had to be there to advise the recipient throughout the process.
I get phone calls from people representing businesses that claim to represent major phone providers, or use names very similar to mainstream providers. Must fool a lot of people. If/when a lot are overseas, there's no recourse against them.