Finance Monthly Legal Awards 2022 USA 66 www.finance-monthly.com President, The Fusselman Law Firm, P.C. About Christopher Fusselman Christopher A Fusselman graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in December 1994 and obtained his licence to practice law in May 1995. He has since become the founder and sole shareholder of The Fusselman Law Firm, PC, a contingent fee-based insurance subrogation and commercial recoveries firm. The firm has been litigating cases across all of Texas for over 20 years and serves a wide variety of commercial and insurance clients, with an emphasis on insurance subrogation, judgment enforcement and accounts receivable collections. An Interview With Christopher Fusselman What would you rate as your greatest achievement of the past year? We made great advancements in our hybrid working environment, which we initially embraced a little over 11 years ago. Our attorneys and staff can work at the office or at home and the firm does not miss a beat, thanks to the dedication of our co-workers, our litigation management software and the firm’s well-honed internal processes. It takes consistent positive collaboration between all of us and, in fact, is still helping us to find more ways to ease the delivery of legal services to our clients in what we see as an environment of new opportunities. What are your plans for The Fusselman Law Firm, PC, in the remainder of 2022 and beyond? We are focused on testing and perfecting our growing filemanagement capacity and on continuing to build out our team to better manage our statewide recoveries and litigation processes as we continue to grow. Is there a particular creed or philosophy that you work by? We believe in serving others by being true to ourselves. Our recoveries-litigation process works well because we have developed and edited a set of practices over 20 years that yield excellent recovery rates in Texas, a state which is notorious for protecting judgment-debtors. Our attorneys open each file to ensure that it is suit-worthy and has a realistic chance of recovery. Next, the assigned attorney compiles the supports and prepares the pleadings for filing with the court. In this way, we ensure that only fully supported files with a realistic chance of recovery are brought into litigation, saving our clients (and ourselves) a lot of time and money, while maximising recovery rates. What do insurance companies and other businesses need to know about the potential for collecting on judgments? For personal automobile-related insurance subrogation cases, the two main methods of collection in Texas are third-party liability insurance policies and the suspension of license and registration privileges for uninsured motorists (which usually results in a court-approved payment plan). In short, so long as the at-fault driver is insured or has a valid driver’s license, there is a realistic chance of a recovery. When it comes to business-debtors (whether subrogation or commercial receivables), the main methods of recovery are third party liability insurance policies, writs of execution and turnover/receivership. If the at-fault business is still in operation, it is imperative to file suit and obtain judgment as quickly as possible so that post-judgment efforts can be initiated. The remedy of turnover and receivership is a very powerful one and the courts will make a judgment-creditor prove that they have attempted other post-judgment measures first (such as writs of execution) before a receiver will be appointed. Once appointed, though, a receiver can access any available asset for sale to satisfy the judgment. For instance, a receiver may lay claim to the proceeds of a bank account held by a judgment-debtor by simply sending a letter to the financial institution. The receiver’s fee is added to the judgment as a cost of court so that the client’s recovery interest in the judgment is not reduced. It is vital to initiate the recoveries process by targeting an asset (insurance policy/driver’s license and/or business personal property) before bringing a lawsuit. Once you have identified a useful asset, suit should be filed as soon as possible in order to quickly obtain judgment and move into recovery mode. Christopher Fusselman
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