Guide to the Best Legal Funding Companies

If you have a lawsuit, need cash now, and searching for the best lawsuit funding company, read this guide before you apply. It will give you more of the best lawsuit cash advance info you need.

How to find the best lawsuit funding company

Finding the best lawsuit cash advance company is no easy task. There is a lot of false info and even some lies you need to be aware of. The more you, the consumer, know, the better deal you can get on legal funding.

Each of the best legal funding companies has a website.

Having a website is a must for all types of business. That is even more so for lawsuit funding. It comes down to trust and credibility. Most people trust a company more if it has a website, which makes sense. It takes time, money, and effort to build a website. So that means each legal funding company with a website invested their time and money.

Legit companies need to invest time and money to work, and if they don’t, they are likely fake. The same applies to legal case funding and the importance of a website.

Still, having a website does not equal a trustworthy and honest lawsuit funding company. Later in this guide, we will explore this notion and see why you can trust some legal funding company websites more and others less.

The best lawsuit funding companies tell the truth.

The best legal funding companies will tell you the truth by not lying to you. If they promise you something they can’t guarantee, that is a lie. So be very careful of companies that say they can do things that are not in their control.

Here are some examples of claims from some less than trustworthy websites. We will explain each one:

• “Lawsuit Loans Approved in 24 Hours”
• “Only pay if you win.”
• “All states allow lawsuit loans…”
• “The funds may be needed to help cover legal fees…”

“Lawsuit Loans Approved in 24 Hours”

Misleading promise! Legal funding companies should not say that because they are not the only people involved in getting you funding. They have to speak with your attorney and law firm first, which can sometimes cause a few day delays.

Plus, they can deny you legal funding, which makes it a false promise. Before reading this, the unfair thing is that you would have applied on their website if you needed money now and wanted to qualify for a lawsuit cash advance in only 24 hours, guaranteed.

Not true! Pre-settlement funding companies, expect repayment if you recover money from your case. That’s standard for how legal funding works. That means legal funding companies get paid back if you settle your case before going to court, which is not winning.

In some bad situations settling your case is almost like losing since the settlement offer is so low. However, those funding companies will still say you got money on your case, so the “payback nothing if you lose” does not apply.

Please don’t take our word for it, though, as lawsuit funding companies stipulate that in their contracts. So ask them for a look. With this being the case, their website does not match their contracts. That’s a problem.

“All states allow lawsuit loans…”

Not accurate on many levels! First, in most states, legal funding is not a loan. So the term “lawsuit loans” is a problem in its own right. It is even more so in Texas, where a court decision made it that legal funding can’t be a pre-settlement “loan” by definition. If it were a loan in Texas, they would need licensing and to follow laws relevant to lenders and borrowers.

Even if you go along with the “lawsuit loan companies” that wrongly act like legal funding is the same as a lawsuit loan, there are states that have “banned legal funding” by passing laws, making it a nonviable product. Arkansas is one of the states that took these measures. So once again, all states don’t “allow lawsuit loans.”

“The funds may be needed to help cover legal fees…”

No, also incorrect, and, in some states, action can be taken against the contract. Legal funding can’t be used to pay for your legal fees or cover case expenses.

That’s because it is consumer legal funding. Meaning it’s for everyday people to pay for daily living expenses and not the costs of a lawsuit. So all legal funding companies should have wording in their contracts that says this.

If you did use your legal funding to pay for a deposition, that would be a case expense and not allowed. Moreover, that could even be a cause of action for champerty and maintenance in some states. That means the company is paying for your case to turn a profit, which is not allowed.

Paying for the cost of a lawsuit is called “commercial litigation financing.” That’s because the legal finance company is financing a lawsuit involving commercial entities, not consumers.

Consumer litigation funding is not a champertous product in the slightest. Lawsuit funding companies purchase a part of the potential settlement or trial award. Not an investment in the case. No champerty and maintenance.

The best legal funding companies know this and make sure you know it too. So keep that in mind when you are scrolling through each website.

The Best Legal Funding Company Websites

The best legal funding companies are transparent and easy to use. Being transparent begins with each companies’ website. Transparent legal funding websites are honest and make it easy to know who, what, and wheres of the website.

The basic parts for how a company can do this is:

• Who works at the legal funding company
• What types of pre-settlement cash advances does the company offer
• Where is the lawsuit funding company located
• How to contact the pre-settlement funding company

The best lawsuit funding websites make it easy to apply for funding anytime, 24/7. Online or by phone. So you can choose the way that best works for you whenever you are ready to get the funding process started. Some websites even have a live chat option to begin the application process.

Who works at the legal funding company:

The best way to answer this question for most websites is by having an About Us page. About Us pages should tell you who runs the lawsuit funding company and its history. Having an About Us page is not enough alone, as it matters what’s on it.

Some of the essential information is on the legal funding company About Us pages:

• Say they are a lawsuit funding company and what types of services they offer.
• Have a Mission Statement. It should include their moral values and why they are the best pre-settlement funding company for you.
• When was the company founded? The full date or at least the year of founding.
• Where was the company founded? The city.
• Explain why the lawsuit funding company was founded.

Lawsuit Funding Company Contact Info

The best legal funding companies make it easy for you to contact them. Meaning they give you multiple ways to reach out to them and make it easy to find their contact info on the lawsuit funding website.

Many Ways Contact Support:

The best funding companies should also have their company location addresses on their websites. This should be a complete mailing address, including the suite number.

The best legal funding companies will have their contact info on a Contact Us page and at the bottom of each page on their website, called a footer.

Educate About Legal Funding

The best legal funding companies want you to learn more about legal funding. So you can make the best choice for yourself even if it’s not opting for legal funding from that company. Like we said before, it starts with their website.

The company websites will have pages explaining the difference between legal funding and a pre-settlement lawsuit loan. They will clarify that lawsuit loans are not just another word for legal funding and why that matters.

The best pre-settlement funding companies will link out to expert websites in order to give you the ability to fact-check them. Like .gov domains. They are government websites and are the most reliable sources for laws and stats.

The best legal funding companies get licensed.

The best legal funding companies make it a top priority to be trustworthy. One vital way any business can be responsible is by getting the licensing needed to serve its clients. This applies to a handful of states like Oklahoma and Missouri.

For example, some unlicensed pre-settlement lenders give loans to Missouri residents and claim they can do so without receiving licensing from the Missouri Division of Finance. Missouri residents can enter a quick Bank and Licensee Search to verify that a lawsuit loan company is licensed. It’s surprisingly easy to use for a government website.

Those companies falsely claim they are following the law since they give non-recourse funding on a contract without a Federal Truth in Lending section. That is incorrect, untrue, and does not follow the law.

So if a legal funding company knows they are required to be licensed in Missouri yet says they don’t need to be, is it unfair to say they are not trustworthy?

So if you are a resident of a loan state like Missouri, make sure you apply with a licensed lawsuit loan company. Lenders must follow laws that make the pre-settlement loan process more transparent and affordable.

They are not lawsuit funding company brokers.

The best pre-settlement cash advance companies are not brokers. That means you will save money by working directly with a lawsuit funding company and avoiding extra broker fees and commissions. Plus, it should also make approval times shorter.

Brokers call different lawsuit funding companies, telling them about you and your funding request. This slows the time it takes for you to hear if you qualify for lawsuit funding.

Before the brokers call around, they require your medical records to send to the legit companies. That’s wrong as your medical records contain privileged information.

Make sure you tell your law firm not to share any of your case info with them, as they might not realize it’s a problem with pre-settlement funding companies.

How legal funding brokers make money

So the fact is you should avoid lawsuit funding brokers at all costs because they cost you money. They can add an extra 20–25% fee on top of your funded amount.

Companies that use brokers don’t upfront the cost of the broker fee. Instead, they apply their interest rates on the broker fee. So the broker fee grows and can turn into costing you more than 100% of the amount of money you received.

Legal funding brokers are not illegal in all states. But they are unfair and costly to plaintiffs in all states. In Missouri, this type of broker fee can be a class A misdemeanor.

What lawsuit funding companies are brokers? We never want to call out any companies by name, but some broker companies are based in New Jersey, New York, Florida, California, and Pennsylvania.

Also, a sign that a company might be a broker is that they advertise “structured settlement loans.”

The best lawsuit cash advances have low rates and are fair.

The best pre-settlement funding agreements have a single low interest rate no unfair extra fees. They never perform a credit check to determine the rate you pay nor penalize you for making no monthly payments.

However, not every company makes its legal funding contracts transparent and risk-free. Some choose the opposite with unfair fees and pricing. Some ways other lawsuit funding companies charge:

Types of Unfair Pricing

How the best pre-settlement funding companies charge interest

First, the best lawsuit funding companies will not charge you in a way that violates any state or federal laws.

Second, the best lawsuit funding companies do not charge you for a year’s worth of interest after day 181. So six months and one day of interest do not cost the same as 12 months.

The best pre-settlement funding companies do not have “Lawsuit Loans” as part of their company name. It’s more than just a coincidence. One reason is that they call themselves a misleading name by having the words “lawsuit loan” instead of “lawsuit funding” in their name.

Moreover, in states where legal funding is defined as a risk-free cash advance and not a loan, they make it seem like they can give you a loan as they are a lawsuit lending company.

So if the company calls itself the best lawsuit loan company in Texas, it’s one you probably one to say no thank you. This applies to most states. Except for a handful of states like Missouri, Illinois, and a few others, it is a lawsuit loan.

More Than Personal Injury Plaintiffs

The best companies in the funding industry know what types of cases are riskier than others. That makes the companies with legal finance experts better because they know what types of personal injury claims are strong. Similarly, they know what insurance companies are the most difficult to litigate against.

One of the more easy case types for a lawsuit cash advance to evaluate during the application process is car accident cases. On the other hand, workers’ compensation claims are complicated to assess, so the best underwriting departments understand how to calculate workers’ compensation settlements. Because of this, you have inexperienced underwriters who make mistakes.

They understand how auto accident and personal injury cases work but not far beyond that, so they are more prone to make mistakes and fund bad cases. Those mistakes cost the lawsuit funding company money. Instead of charging some of the lowest rates in the funding industry, they charge high rates and unfair fees. All because they need to make up for preventable losses.

Most civil and personal injury case types can qualify for lawsuit funding. So if you are a plaintiff who hired an attorney on a contingency fee basis and seeking compensation for injuries or damages, you are qualified to apply for legal funding.

​We hope you found this guide a helpful resource about lawsuit funding companies. Below are more resource options that you can use while you continue your legal funding journey.

Originally published at https://expresslegalfunding.com on December 20, 2021.