Arizona law allows the pre-judgment seizure of a debtor’s property to secure the payment of any judgment that the creditor may later obtain against the debtor using the “provisional remedies” of attachment, garnishment, and replevin. Such provisional remedies can assure a proverbial ‘pot of gold at the end of the litigation rainbow’ for creditors, but only if creditors’ lawyers strictly comply with constitutional and statutory preconditions, procedures, and safeguards that most lawyers and judges simply do not know or understand. This program will benefit both judges and lawyers alike by answering these frequent questions about provisional remedies:
· What claims and causes of action support the granting of a pre-judgment provisional remedy?
· Under what circumstances can a creditor seize a debtor’s assets with provisional remedies?
· What factual and legal showings constitute ‘good cause’ for issuance of provisional remedies?
· What are the procedural formalities that must be followed to obtain a provisional remedy?
· Which assets of the debtor can be seized?
· What are the other indirect benefits to the courts, clients, and counsel when provisional remedies are at play?
· How can a party obtain provisional remedies in private arbitration matters?
· What are the common mistakes that judges and lawyers make when dealing with provisional remedies?
Attorney Mark E. Lassiter is the founder of The Lassiter Law Firm in Tempe, Arizona with over 40 years of experience in the areas of Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”), business, real estate, construction, and organizational dispute resolution and transactions. He is an AV Preeminent® rated attorney, a Southwest SuperLawyer® in ADR, a Fellow in the College of Commercial Arbitrators and a mediator and arbitrator on the panels of the American Arbitration Association (since 1992) and the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (since 2011). He is an expert on Arizona creditors’ rights and provisional remedies law and has chaired CLE programs on provisional remedies for the State Bar of Arizona, several Arizona Bar Associations, and for in-house training programs for law firms.
Attorney Charlie Markle is a Partner at the Phoenix office of Greenberg Traurig, where his commercial litigation practice includes matters related to contracts, claims and defenses of various breaches of duty, negligence, and fraud, as well as leveraging the power of provisional remedies with the goal of avoiding protracted litigation. His experience includes real estate finance disputes, real property litigation, insurance litigation, partnership disputes, entity ownership disputes, securities fraud, and shareholders disputes.
*The State Bar of Arizona does not approve or accredit CLE activities for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirement. This activity may qualify for up to 1.0 hour toward your annual CLE requirement for the State Bar of Arizona, including 0.0 hour of professional responsibility.