Lawsuit Loans for Paralegals

Exploring Lawsuit Loans for Paralegals

Lawsuit loans, or pre-settlement funding, can be a lifeline for many clients waiting for the resolution of their cases. As a paralegal, understanding such loans is paramount to assisting your clients effectively. These loans are essentially cash advances given to plaintiffs with pending lawsuits. With lawsuit loans, clients can cover their living expenses while they await their settlement. This is handy for clients dealing with financial difficulties during this often lengthy process.

People often misunderstand lawsuit loans, thinking they are traditional loans, but they are not. Repayment relies solely on the outcome of the case. If a client wins their case, they repay the funding company; if they lose, they owe nothing. Cash advances from lawsuit loans can give clients financial stability as the legal proceedings unfold, so it is crucial for you as a paralegal to have up-to-date knowledge about them. This will enable you to provide more comprehensive assistance to your clients during their lawsuit.

What to Tell Your Client About Lawsuit Funding

Lawsuit loans should be used as a last resort—they typically involve fairly high interest rates. However, lawsuit loans are non-recourse, meaning that if the case is lost, no party is personally liable for the amount borrowed.

Tell your clients to limit the amount of money they ask for from lawsuit funding companies. They should assess what they need for living expenses for the next few months, as they can always get more funding later if needed.

Make your clients aware of the work involved in processing a funder’s document request. Tell them to ask funders to commit to basic terms or ranges (e.g., simple interest only or no fees) before they ask for documents. Advise them of any funders with low rates that you have worked with before.

How to Manage Lawsuit Loan Applications and Work with Funders

Sometimes a phone call can save you a lot of time. Give the funder a call and go over some basic details of the case. Often, companies have certain non-starters, such as a high payoff, low insurance coverage, soft tissue injuries, state of residence, or stage of litigation, that will disqualify your client.

If you decide to send documents to the funder, quickly look through your case file to see which documents most clearly illustrate the value of the case in question. Funders care about nothing more than expected value.

Compile and scan documents (as relevant or requested) on liability, most serious damages, insurance coverage, and anything else important (complaint, demand letter). Err on the side of including more rather than less, but there is no need to send great detail. For medical records, summary pages will usually suffice. If you’ve scanned the case file, it will be easy to send to other funders if they request it. Don’t get stuck doing the same work twice!

Lawsuit Loan Interest Rates: Looking Under the Hood of the Payoff Table

Fees

• Any on-contract fees will usually incur interest—make sure your client understands the impact of fees on payback.
• Make sure fees are less than 15% of the total purchase price.
• If your client is getting a bad rate, advise them that it may be better to look for funding elsewhere.

Interest

• Advise your client of the difference between compound and simple interest.
• Show them the impact of compound interest more than a year out.
• Have them ask for a payoff table with three years of payoff data.
• Remember that a high compound interest rate (even with low or no fees) may look attractive early on but can lead to a very high payback down the road.

Confidentiality and Lawsuit Funding Requests

Continue to keep confidentiality in mind when working with lawsuit funders.

• Confirm that your client has applied with any funding company that requests case files, and that they agree to have their files sent to the funder.
• Often, clients will fill out several online applications, and many companies will try to contact your firm. You can save a lot of time and effort by discussing the options with your client instead of just sending information for all inquiries.
• Signed release form: It may be best to get a release form signed by your client prior to sending documents.

Uplift Legal Funding

Uplift Legal Funding is a trusted lawsuit funding company based in Los Angeles. At Uplift, we pride ourselves on transparency. If you have any questions or would like to talk about working with Uplift on your plaintiff funding needs, please feel free to call us at (800) 385-3660.