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Article
I: Responsibilities
In carrying out their responsibilities as
professionals, individuals should
exercise sensitive professional and moral judgments in all
their activities.
Judgment
recovery professionals perform an essential role in
society. Consistent with that role, they have
responsibilities to all those who utilize their services.
Professionals also have a continuing responsibility to
cooperate with each other to improve the business of
judgment recovery, maintain the public's confidence, and
carry out the profession's special responsibilities for
self-governance. The collective efforts of all
professionals are required to maintain and enhance the
traditions of the profession.
Article
II: The Public Interest
Judgment recovery professionals should accept the
obligation
to perform in a way that will serve the public interest,
honor the
public trust, and demonstrate commitment to
professionalism.
1)
A distinguishing mark of any profession is acceptance of
its responsibility to the public. The judgment recovery
profession's public consists of judgment creditors,
judgment debtors, the court system, the legal profession,
and others who rely on the objectivity and integrity of
judgment recovery professionals. This reliance imposes a
public interest responsibility on judgment recovery
professionals. The public interest is defined as the
collective well-being of the community of people and
institutions the profession serves.
2) In discharging their professional responsibilities,
judgment recovery professionals may encounter conflicting
pressures from among each of those groups. In resolving
those conflicts, the judgment recovery professional should
act with integrity, guided by the precept that when
individuals fulfill their responsibility to the public,
everyone's interests are best served.
3) Those who rely on judgment recovery professionals
expect them to discharge their responsibilities with
integrity, objectivity, due professional care, and a
genuine interest in serving the public -- all in a manner
that demonstrates a level of professionalism consistent
with these Principles of the Code of Ethics.
4) Judgment recovery professionals commit themselves to
honor the public trust. In return for the faith that the
public reposes in them, judgment recovery professionals
should seek continually to demonstrate their dedication to
professional excellence.
Article
III: Integrity
To maintain and broaden public confidence,
judgment recovery professionals should perform
all responsibilities with the highest sense of integrity.
1)
Integrity is an element of character fundamental to
professional recognition. It is the quality from which the
public trust derives and the benchmark against which a
judgment recovery professional must ultimately test all
decisions.
2) Integrity requires the individual to be, among other
things, honest and candid within the constraints of
professional confidentiality. Service and the public trust
should not be subordinated to personal gain and advantage.
Integrity can accommodate the inadvertent error and the
honest difference of opinion; it cannot accommodate deceit
or subordination of principle.
3) Integrity is measured in terms of what is right and
just. In the absence of specific rules, standards, or
guidance, or in the face of conflicting opinions, the
individual should test decisions and deeds by asking:
"Am I doing what a person of integrity would do? Have
I retained my integrity?" Integrity requires the
individual to observe both the form and the spirit of
technical and ethical standards; circumvention of those
standards constitutes subordination of judgment.
4) Integrity also requires a judgment recovery
professional to observe the principles of objectivity and
independence and of due care.
Article
IV: Due Care
A judgment recovery professional should observe the
profession's technical and ethical standards, strive
continually
to improve competence and the quality of services, and
discharge
professional responsibility to the best of his or her
ability.
1)
The quest for excellence is the essence of due care. Due
care requires the judgment recovery professional to
discharge professional responsibilities with competence
and diligence. It imposes the obligation to perform
professional services to the best of the individual's
ability with concern for the best interest of those for
whom the services are performed and consistent with the
profession's responsibility to the public.
2) Competence is derived from a synthesis of education and
experience. It begins with a mastery of the common body of
knowledge required for designation as a judgment recovery
professional. The maintenance of competence requires a
commitment to learning and professional improvement that
must continue throughout the individual's professional
life. It is a judgment recovery professional's individual
responsibility. In all engagements and in all
responsibilities, each individual should undertake to
achieve a level of competence that will assure that the
quality of their services meet the high level of
professionalism required by these Principles.
3) Competence represents the attainment and maintenance of
a level of understanding and knowledge that enables the
judgment recovery professional to render services with
facility and acumen. It also establishes the limitations
of the individual's capabilities by dictating that
consultation or referral may be required when a
professional engagement exceeds the personal competence of
the individual. Every judgment recovery professional is
responsible for assessing his or her own competence - of
evaluating whether education, experience, and judgment are
adequate for the responsibility to be assumed.
4) Judgment recovery professionals should be diligent in
discharging responsibilities to the public. Diligence
imposes the responsibility to render services promptly and
carefully, to be thorough, and to observe applicable
technical and ethical standards.
5) Due care requires the individual to plan and supervise
adequately any professional activity for which he or she
is responsible.
Article
V: Scope and Nature of Services
A judgment recovery professional should observe
the Principles of the Code of Professional Ethics in
determining the scope and nature of services to be
provided.
1)
The public interest aspect of the judgment recovery
professionals' services requires that such services be
consistent with acceptable professional behavior.
Integrity requires that service and the public trust not
be subordinated to personal gain and advantage.
Objectivity and independence require that the individual
be free from conflicts of interest in discharging
professional responsibilities. Due care requires that
services be provided with competence and diligence.
2) Each of these Principles should be considered by the
judgment recovery professional in determining whether or
not to provide specific services in individual
circumstances. No hard-and-fast rules can be developed to
help the individual reach these judgments, but the
individual must be satisfied that they are meeting the
spirit of the Principles in this regard. In order to
accomplish this, judgment recovery professionals should
assess, in their individual judgments, whether an activity
is consistent with their role as professionals.
Article
VI: Pledge
All judgment recovery professionals freely subscribe to
the following pledge without prejudice or reservation.
In
the execution of my professional responsibilities, I will:
- Conduct
my business in a professional and ethical manner.
- Comply
with all city, county, state, and federal laws.
- Respond
promptly to all correspondence from all parties
involved in my purchased judgments.
- Immediately
return ownership of all judgments to the original
judgment creditor should I terminate my business.
- Stay
abreast of changes within the industry.
- Maintain
confidentiality with respect to agreements with the
original judgment creditor.
- Continue
to educate myself with respect to the legal processes
involved in judgment recovery.
- Assist
other judgment recovery professionals through the
sharing of my knowledge.
- Not
use harassing tactics in the process of recovery of
any judgment.
- Not
render legal advice in any form or fashion, or give
the appearance of rendering legal advice.
- Not
engage in unfair business practices in regard to the
public or other judgment recovery professionals.
[Revised
12/04]
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