While many people win multimillion-dollar judgments in court, collecting on them is another matter, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis today. A new generation of firms are chasing assets of the superrich who are tardy on payments from judgments, arbitration awards and other financial obligations. In one measure of the potential market, The Global Arbitration Review, an industry journal, estimates there are about $2 trillion in pending arbitration claims world-wide. These high-end collection services — which include litigation-funders, hedge funds and other specialized investors — retrieve what is owed for a share. They are usually hired by people who lack the resources or don’t want to use their own money to collect, even at a time when high-profile scandals are making it more difficult to hide assets around the globe.
