Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Usher Law Group, P.C. · Brooklyn, NY · (718) 484-7510

Representative matters

Categories of work, described honestly, and an explanation of why you will not find a win rate, a dollars-saved counter, or a wall of five-star reviews on this site.

Why this page reads differently

What we deliberately do not publish

You have probably seen other firms' pages in this practice area. They tend to advertise a case count, a success percentage, a dollars-saved figure, and three anonymous five-star testimonials from a "Restaurant Owner, Brooklyn, NY."

None of that appears here, on purpose, for two reasons.

The first reason is the rule

New York Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1 permits statements about results only where they are factual and can be substantiated, and it requires that comparisons and characterizations of quality be capable of substantiation. A figure like "92% favorable outcomes" is a comparative success rate with no defined denominator: favorable how, measured against what, over which population of matters? A firm that cannot answer those questions from its own files should not be publishing the number, and even a firm that can answer them usually cannot publish the number without a prospective client reading it as a promise.

Testimonials are permitted, but they have to be from actual clients, given with informed consent, and accompanied by the required disclaimer placed where the reader will see it, not in 10-point type at 60% opacity in the footer.

The second reason is that the numbers are useless to you

Suppose a firm has genuinely handled five hundred MCA matters. That tells you nothing about whether your confession of judgment was entered in the wrong county, whether your reconciliation clause was honored, or whether your guaranty is one of payment or of performance. A number is a substitute for the analysis. What follows is the analysis instead.

Matter types we handle

Restrained operating account

Restraint and payroll

A merchant's operating account is restrained on a judgment entered by confession. We move by order to show cause addressing both the restraint and the validity of the underlying judgment, and negotiate over the release of funds needed to meet payroll while the motion is pending.

Posture: Kings County Supreme Court · order to show cause · CPLR 5240 and CPLR 5015
Judgment entered by confession

Motion to vacate

An out-of-state merchant learns of a New York confession of judgment only after enforcement begins. The motion to vacate turns on the residency and venue predicates of CPLR 3218 and on defects in the affidavit of confession itself, which can be apparent on the face of the clerk's file.

Posture: New York State Supreme Court · CPLR 5015(a) motion to vacate
Stacked advances

Coordinated defense

A merchant has taken advances from several funders within a few months, with overlapping UCC filings and more than one collection action pending. Defended as one coordinated strategy rather than a separate engagement per funder, with reclassification raised against each agreement where the terms support it.

Posture: Multiple counties · coordinated defense and negotiation
Blanket UCC filings after payoff

Termination demands

Financing statements describing all assets remain on record after the underlying advances have been satisfied, and surface during a bank loan application. Authenticated demands are served under UCC 9-513(c), with the 9-625 statutory penalty identified.

Posture: NYS Department of State UCC index · pre-litigation demand campaign
Guaranty sued on as a payment guaranty

Scope contested

A funder sues an owner individually on a guaranty that, read closely, guarantees the merchant's performance of specified covenants rather than repayment of the advance. The defense addresses the instrument's scope and the conditions on which liability depends.

Posture: Commercial part · CPLR 3213 practice and answer with defenses
Reconciliation refused

Illusory-provision defense

The merchant asks for contractual reconciliation in writing as receipts decline and gets no adjustment. The documented request becomes the centerpiece of the argument that the reconciliation provision is illusory and the transaction a loan in substance.

Posture: Supreme Court · answer with affirmative defenses and counterclaims
Read this before you read anything into the above. The descriptions on this page are illustrative of matter types handled by this firm. They are not guarantees, predictions, warranties or representations about the outcome of any matter, including yours. Every case turns on its own agreement, its own facts, its own procedural posture, its own record and its own judge. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Descriptions have been generalized so that they do not identify any client or matter.

What we will tell you about your own case

Instead of a statistic, on the first call you get four things:

  1. The governing deadline, computed from how and when you were actually served or when the judgment was entered, not a general rule of thumb.
  2. The specific grounds we can see in your documents, cited to the statute or the case, along with the ones we looked for and did not find.
  3. An honest read on difficulty. Some of these matters are clean and turn on the court's own file. Others are contested factual fights that will take a year. You should know which one you have before you pay anybody.
  4. A fee number and what it covers, in writing, before you commit.

If the honest answer is that there is not much to work with, you will hear that too. It is a shorter conversation and it costs you nothing.

Mikhail Usher shaking hands across a conference table with an opposing lawyer whose face is turned away, a salon owner behind him exhaling with a hand on her chest while Alexander Susi closes the folder
Some of these matters end in a signed stipulation and some end in a decision. Every matter type above describes work done in this office. Nothing on this page describes work referred out or bought in.
On results and claims

Frequently asked

Because a success rate with no defined denominator is not information, and because NY RPC 7.1 permits statements about results only where they are factual and substantiable. What we will do is tell you, specifically, what we see in your documents and how hard we think your matter is.

Client identity and matter details are confidential, and we do not disclose them without informed consent. Where a former client has consented to speak with a prospective client, we can facilitate that on request, but we will not manufacture testimonials or publish anonymous ones.

Ask on the call. We will tell you whether we have appeared against a particular funder and its usual counsel, and what their pattern of practice is, to the extent that does not disclose another client's confidential information. That is a more useful answer than a case count.

Depending on the posture: vacatur of a judgment, release or limitation of a restraint, dismissal of a claim, termination of UCC filings, a negotiated payoff at a number that reflects actual exposure rather than the funder's opening demand, or a trial, which either side can lose. Which of those is realistic for you depends on facts we have not seen yet.

Ask us about your matter, not our averages.

Send the documents. You will get the deadline, the grounds we can actually see, an honest read on difficulty, and a fee number.

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