Litigation finance revolutionised the litigation and dispute resolution industries. Growing litigation market attracted new players who are happy to finance lengthy and costly litigation and arbitration proceedings. The industry emerged about two decades ago and attracted many new players in the recent years. Our platform brings together the most the industry can offer. Through our channel, which is free for claimants to use you can access numerous litigation funders and ATE insurance providers.
There are different funders in the market who operate in various segments and countries. Some prefer to fund small cases while others prefer only big claims. Therefore, before choosing the potential funder, amongst other factors, one should consider cost, availability of funds, experience, flexibility, reliability and turnaround time. Claimants are becoming more risk averse and an increasing number of companies decide to attract litigation funding in return for giving up a share of profit. Normally, funders consider cases where the overall cost exceeds the amount of claim at least four times.
Usually, funders prefer to deal with legal advisors rather than directly with claimants. If you feel that you have the case appropriate for funding, the best starting point is to discuss it either with your lawyer or a funder. Lawyers can collect all the necessary documents and information and prepare the case for the funder to review. Depending on the complexity of the case, the review can take months. Apart from assessing the claim’s likelihood of success, funders are also assessing prospects of achieving recovery from the defendant. The latter often being the first and vitally important point which, if resolved to funder’s satisfaction, will prompt it to move the case to the next phase which is in-depth due diligence in order to satisfy itself of the merits of the case. At some point (usually during the due diligence process), the funder is likely to request exclusivity period and propose entering into the exclusivity agreement. However, it usually does not guarantee that the funder would finance the case. Therefore, it always makes sense to try to work with several funders in order to speed up the process and increase chances of success. In recent years, law firms started forming alliances and working exclusively with certain funders. This new trend might result (albeit with some exceptions) in client being offered only one funding quote (not necessarily the most competitive).