As all good lawyers know, having leverage is everything, whether you are doing a transaction or trying to settle a dispute.  And what could be better leverage than a court order directing your adversary’s bank to freeze the funds in an operating account?  Obviously, such a potent weapon could, and often does, allow a plaintiff to dictate the terms of settlement to the defendant.  While being able to do this might sound like a fantasy, Massachusetts courts routinely order a freeze on bank accounts through a mechanism called a “trustee process attachment.”  Further, some judges even issue trustee process attachments ex parte, i.e., without the defendant having an opportunity to oppose the request for such relief. 

If in-house counsel understand how trustee process attachments work, they can help position their companies to more easily (i) obtain trustee process attachments against future adversaries and (ii) avoid having their own bank accounts frozen.… Keep reading