On a cold morning last December, a young man approached 160th District Judge Jim Jordan, hoping Jordan would approve a money-losing proposition: The man wanted to transfer $20,000 in future structured settlement payments to a company that would in turn give him about $10,000 cash.
Jordan peered over the bench and asked the man a series of questions: Did he talk to a lawyer or a financial adviser about the transaction? Did he understand the terms of the transfer? And why did he want to make this deal?
