Personal injury firms routinely hear requests for money from clients who desperately need cash. Sometimes, the injury is the cause of the client’s financial strain. Other clients simply “heard it from a friend” that attorneys give money to their clients once they are retained. Unfortunately for them (and your firm), most states prohibit this practice.
Enter into the equation the lawsuit funding industry – you know, the guys who charge “outlandish” interest and fees, the guys who are called “legal loan sharks”. The insurance industry does a good job at portraying these companies as encouraging litigation and hindering good faith settlement. But the need for financial help still exists and in a market economy, entrepreneurs compete to fill this need.
Lawsuit Funding and the Law Firm
All of this talk of free markets and propaganda does little to help law firms lessen the burden of helping their clients in their time of need. It would be accurate to say that lawsuit funding places a burden upon counsel because without the firm’s cooperation, companies will not advance money.
Because lawyers only have their time to sell, any time spent in unproductive endeavors are resisted. Gathering paperwork and fielding calls from funding companies are placed in this category. It is easy to see why lawyers are torn between trying to help their clients and the efficient management of their practice.
Settlement Funding Can Be Easy
Like it or not, lawsuit funding has become a part of EVERY personal injury practice. Attorneys would do well to accept that lawsuit funding fills a present need in their clients’ lives.
If there were proven strategies to dealing with lawsuit funding companies, wouldn’t you want to know them? What if this approach greatly limits the amount of time your staff devotes to the process and limits your personal interaction with underwriters? Would you also want to know how using this approach will give your clients the best deals in the business?
There is a solution!
Please be on the lookout for our next installment which will outline the ways personal injury attorneys can streamline the funding process, thus leaving more time for the firm to focus on tasks that actually contribute to the firm’s bottom line.
