Lawsuit Funding: Financial Support for Plaintiff

Lawsuit funding is one of the most relatively new concepts and financial alternatives for the plaintiffs, connected with any lawsuits. These lawsuit loans are also suitable for the attorneys, representing them based on the contingency charges fee. There are various terms associated with the lawsuit funding, like finance for pre-settlement and lawsuit settlement, finance for post-settlement and litigation, and third-party finance.

Due to the recent global pandemic, the impact of the coronavirus has drastically affected the civil courts as well. Although the attorney is working virtually and all the courtrooms are closed, there are infinite cases still waiting for the trial. Without the jury or a judge to continue the trial or settlement, the attorney for the plaintiff includes very little power in their hands. Here comes the role of lawsuit funding into play.

Personal injury loans are one of the immensely extending sectors that most mainstream investors have adopted. It is due to the various yields this funding facility can offer. A lawsuit funding will help deliver a fair result by giving the law firm or the plaintiff the required power to acquire a reasonable settlement. Legal financing also enables a law firm to enhance its capability to accept more new cases. The increased demand for litigation funding offers innumerable benefits for both the investor and the borrower.

Definition of Lawsuit Funding

According to the legal experts, lawsuit financing is the procedure through which both legal firms and the plaintiffs can finance all the legal or litigation-relevant expenditure. It is accomplished through the third-party company that is interested in funding the cases. These funding organizations will offer advance payments to the clients in exchange for some return from their settlement, judgment, award, or legal charges. These transactions are always non-recourse, which means that if the client loses the ongoing case, the funding organization will not capture other properties of the person, not related to the litigation for gaining any satisfaction.

A third-party financing enterprise offers cash in the form of lawsuit loans in advance to the attorney or the plaintiff. The best part of this type of financing is that if the attorney loses the case, the person will not be responsible for the fund repayment towards the company. There will be no terms for paying back the third party organization if there is no favorable outcome for the attorney in terms of the verdict. In other words, you can consider them as not loans but non-recourse transactions. It is the primary difference between transactional financings like credit lines or loans and legal funding.

But keep in mind that lawsuit financing is more costly than traditional bank loans and credit lines. But the conventional options are not always accessible or practical with no mortgage. They want a mortgage, in case if the applicant is unable to repay the loan, the financial organization will recoup their loan by selling off their collateral. But this is not the case for lawsuit funding, and thus it is one of the most valuable solutions at that moment.

Who will get benefits from the lawsuit funding?

It is now time to check out who will get immense benefits from the lawsuit funding. They are as follows.

• Financially Troubled Parties Plaintiffs

During pre-settlement financing, money plays a vital tool for the receiving party to get a fair deal in the court by offering daily funding till they win a settlement. This funding is a non-recourse transaction, and there is no mandatory clause of repaying the money until you have won the case. There are several cases where the attorney or plaintiff gets injured or encounters an accident during the trial. Personal injury loans will deliver lifetime support to take care of his/her financial requirements like food and rent and keep paying on the necessary medical bills.

On the other hand, when the small business owners get sued by the enormous player in the industry, they cannot continue their company unless they get financial aid from outside. The litigation funding will offer the plaintiffs the necessary power to get a settlement against the enormous organizations. In other words, lawsuit funding helps different parties to pursue justice.

• Attorney and Law Firms

Legal financing also assists the small law firms to uphold the performance expenses and facilitates the plaintiff recruitment for mass or massive cases. Most attorneys within the legal firm operate based on contingency charges. It means that he/he will not get any payment until the court case has received justice or gets settled. The attorneys have to work for years with no fee and only accept the necessary payments after they have won the case. In these cases, lawsuit loans allow the plaintiffs or the attorneys to continue to work on the trial with no financial strain on the firm.

Law firms can also ask for legal funding and recoup the costs when the parties they are fighting for have won. It is one of the best ways to include an additional cash flow, thus enhancing their working capacity. According to a study by Lake Whillans in 2017, 84.29% of the litigators who have already accessed the legal funding might again ask for it in the future.

• Investors

The lawsuit funding portfolios offer a diversified chance to the investors with no surrender to the potentially striking yields. In plaintiff loans, an investor can achieve attractive results in an optional asset class that usually acts independently in the stock market area. Investors are not diversified due to the cross-collateralized portfolios from the stock market due to the cast type, geographical segments, size, and many more. The investments remain diversified within the field as well.

Final Words

It is not a surprise that lawsuit finance has expanded exponentially in the last few decades and is already going mainstream. Though the sector is relatively unknown, understanding how the different parties will get engaged in the deals and reap benefits from it forced more attorneys and plaintiffs to enter the space. In other words, lawsuit funding is one of the best ways to have positive vibes in the litigators’ and plaintiffs’ lives, who are busy pursuing justice for others.