The Merchant Capital decision is very good news for MCA companies doing business with Florida merchants

Lauren also has experience handling lender liability claims, usury actions, lien priority claims, fraudulent transfer claims, and violations of federal and Florida consumer protection statutes

The underlying lawsuit involved several commonly litigated issues in the MCA space, and the court unambiguously came down on the side of the MCA company. This case also illustrates the importance of a carefully structured purchase and sale agreement. Keep in mind, however, that a well-crafted agreement alone will not fully protect MCA companies from successful recharacterization claims. Courts in states other than Florida have recharacterized MCA purchase and sale agreements as loans based on the parties’ course of dealing, advertising, and other factors. While helpful, the Merchant Capital decision does not address practices outside of the agreement that could pose a recharacterization risk. Companies should invest time and resources to perform internal and external audits of all business processes, including marketing, websites and social media, and internal policies and procedures to monitor for compliance with the various state laws differentiating loans from MCAs.

Lauren Raines is a member of the Banking and Financial Services Practice Group and the Real Estate Practice Group. Lauren divides her time between transactional and litigation matters and regularly handles both commercial lending transactions and financial services litigation. This hybrid practice has allowed Lauren to better serve her transactional clients by advising them on the potential areas of conflict that could arise later in litigation, and to effectively advocate for her litigation clients due to her broad understanding of real estate principles.

Lauren also regularly represents merchant cash advance companies in enforcement actions, bankruptcy litigation and defending against usury, RICO, preference and lien avoidance claims

Lauren has successfully handled countless contested commercial https://signaturetitleloans.com/payday-loans-nm/ and consumer mortgage foreclosure trials for banks and mortgage servicers across the state of Florida.

Chris Friedman is a regulatory compliance attorney and litigator who focuses on helping consumer finance companies and small business lenders, as well as banks, fintech companies, and other participants in the financial services industry, address the challenges of operating in a highly regulated sector. Chris focuses on both small business lenders and alternative business finance products and has helped non-bank small business lenders, banks who make small business loans, commercial credit counselors, lead generators, and others in the industry. He helps clients launch new products, conduct due diligence, engage in compliance reviews, evaluate litigation risk, and solve some of the unique legal problems faced by companies who work with small businesses. In that vein, Chris has written extensively about the upcoming rulemaking related to Dodd-Frank 1071, which will require data collection and reporting by companies making loans to certain small businesses.

Brian Epling assists financial services clients, including small dollar lenders, auto finance companies, and mortgage servicers, with navigating regulatory compliance and litigation issues.

On the regulatory compliance side, Brian has assisted financial services clients with policies and procedures to comply with state and…

Brian Epling assists financial services clients, including small dollar lenders, auto finance companies, and mortgage servicers, with navigating regulatory compliance and litigation issues.