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Category: Litigation Funding

Wisconsin Enacts First-In-Nation Law Requiring Disclosure of Litigation Funding Agreements

Wisconsin Enacts First-In-Nation Law Requiring Disclosure of Litigation Funding Agreements

Civil litigants  in Wisconsin state court will have to disclose any litigation funding agreements under a bill signed into law by that state’s Governor Scott Walker earlier this month. It’s the first state law of its kind, according to published reports. The law revises the state’s requirements for discovery in civil litigation. A National Law Journal article about the new law is available (behind subscription wall) here and a press release from U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform is…

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NFL Concussion Settlement: Judge Orders Attorneys Seeking Fees To Disclose Information About Litigation Funding Company Agreements

NFL Concussion Settlement: Judge Orders Attorneys Seeking Fees To Disclose Information About Litigation Funding Company Agreements

U.S. District Court Judge Anita B. Brody – who oversees the settlement of the National Football League players’ concussion injury settlement – wants information from attorneys who are seeking to collect attorneys’ fees for representing ex-player clients. Among the facts that she wants from those attorneys is whether they, or their law firms, have entered into litigation funding agreements. Judge Brody in December declared such agreements invalid.  See “Judge Overseeing Concussion Settlement Invalidates Litigation Funding Agreements With NFL Players“. One…

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Litigants May Waive Privilege By Sharing Protected Information with Funding Companies, Says Author of Article

Litigants May Waive Privilege By Sharing Protected Information with Funding Companies, Says Author of Article

What happens if a potential claimant shares privileged information with a litigation funding company, before the claimant signs any agreement with the company? Typically, the claimant waives the privilege. But there may be no waiver if the parties first sign a litigation funding agreement – the key word being “may”. Those are some of the points from an article, “Sharing Protected Information With Potential Litigation Funders“, in the Spring 2018 issue of Today’s General Counsel magazine.  (A link to the…

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Illinois Court: No Full Faith and Credit for Default Judgment, and Litigation Funding Agreement Was Unenforceable on Champerty Grounds

Illinois Court: No Full Faith and Credit for Default Judgment, and Litigation Funding Agreement Was Unenforceable on Champerty Grounds

An Illinois court need not give full faith and credit to a Minnesota default judgment, and need not give effect to parts of a litigation funding agreement that was unenforceable, on champerty grounds, based on controlling Minnesota law. That was the ruling of an Illinois appellate court, in Prospect Funding Holdings v. Saulter, No. 1-17-1277, 2018 Ill. App. LEXIS 126 (Ill. App. Ct. Mar. 13, 2018), which involved claims by a litigation funding company against an attorney for a wrongful…

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Wall Street Journal Says Court Rules Are Starting to Bring Litigation Funders Out from Under a ‘Veil of Secrecy’

Wall Street Journal Says Court Rules Are Starting to Bring Litigation Funders Out from Under a ‘Veil of Secrecy’

“Investors placing bets on commercial lawsuits have long operated under a veil of secrecy.  But as litigation funding in the U.S. has spread to more courthouses and transformed into a billion-dollar business, plaintiffs and their faceless financiers are confronting calls for more transparency.” So begins a news article, “Lawsuit Funding, Long Hidden In The Shadows, Faces Calls For More Sunlight“, that the Wall Street Journal published last week. The article points out that “the arm of the federal judiciary that…

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Report: Litigation Funding Company Contends NFL Concussion Settlement’s Assignment Ban Is Unclear

Report: Litigation Funding Company Contends NFL Concussion Settlement’s Assignment Ban Is Unclear

A Law.com report last week says that a litigation funding company – which has entered into purported litigation funding agreements with 42 ex-National Football League players – asserts that the order that prohibits assignment is unclear. In a March 13, 2018, story on Law.com (NFL Lit Funding Demands Details of Assignment Agreement Ban, available here) reporter Max Mitchell writes that a “Thrivest Specialty Funding filed a letter to U.S. District Judge Anita Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, asking…

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‘Bait-and-Switch’ Claim Over $1 Million Hole-In-One Contest Fails When Court Says Assignment of Claim Was Champerty

‘Bait-and-Switch’ Claim Over $1 Million Hole-In-One Contest Fails When Court Says Assignment of Claim Was Champerty

So, four friends playing golf in Las Vegas get to the seventh hole, where a resort employee tells them that, “for a $20 fee, a golfer could enter the ‘million-dollar hole-in-one challenge’ in which a golfer who hits a ball from the tee to the cup in one swing ‘would get . . . a million-dollar prize.” One friend, Aretakis, pays the $20 entry fee for all four in the four-some.  Another friend, Neary, offered to reimburse the first for…

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Court: Litigation Funder Cannot Re-Litigate Enforceability of Agreements

Court: Litigation Funder Cannot Re-Litigate Enforceability of Agreements

Because a litigation funding company lost on the issue of enforceability of its agreements in a previous legal action against an individual, the company is precluded from re-litigating the issue in a later lawsuit where the company attempted to enforce the same agreements against the individual’s attorney, That was the ruling in Prospect Funding Holdings, LLC v. Breen, Civ. No. 2:17-cv-3328-KM-MAH, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19373 (D.N.J. Feb. 5, 2018),Plaintiff Prospect Funding Holdings, LLC (“Prospect”).  The “agreements have already been…

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News Report: Newest Litigation Funding Legislation Is ‘Toothless’, Says Rival Bill’s Sponsor

News Report: Newest Litigation Funding Legislation Is ‘Toothless’, Says Rival Bill’s Sponsor

Following several articles on litigation funding during the first week of the year, The New York Post has reported on competing legislative proposals offered by New York politicians aimed at regulating the industry. And one bill is “toothless”, says a sponsor of an earlier piece of legislation that would cap interest rates that litigation funders could charge, according to the Post. The Post’s article, Lawmakers Square Off Over Profitable Cottage Industry, is available here. Earlier related Secondary Insurance Market Blog…

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A ‘No-Call’ in the NFL Concussion Settlement Litigation? Litigation Funders May Think Twice About Ruling That’s Now Being Appealed

A ‘No-Call’ in the NFL Concussion Settlement Litigation? Litigation Funders May Think Twice About Ruling That’s Now Being Appealed

A litigation funding company has filed an appeal from the ruling last month by the judge overseeing the NFL concussion settlement – a ruling that invalidated litigation funding agreements with cognitively-impaired ex-players. And that ruling raises a question: did the judge make a no-call, like NFL refs sometimes do – that could have prevented the litigation funders from even attempting to recoup any monies paid to the players. That question gets explored in a LinkedIn article available here.  An article…

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