RD Legal Funding, LLC ("RD Legal Funding") continues to expand their services to the attorney community by broadening the availability of their Fee Acceleration product to those who practice business litigation on contingency. Plaintiffs' attorneys who practice in traditional areas of litigation like personal injury, employment law, and even class actions and MDLs have been able to access legal funding on their cases. Recently, the number of attorneys taking on business litigation clients on contingency has increased. As the market adjusts to this new movement, RD Legal Funding has found a way to help those attorneys avoid certain issues that can arise with contingency fee practices. "For years, we've provided post-settlement funding to plaintiffs' attorneys because of their contingency based fee structure," says Roni Dersovitz, Founder of RD Legal Funding. "As more attorneys take on business litigation cases on contingency, we decided we can offer those same services to them as this trend continues to grow."
According to some studies on the topic of business litigation, companies spend billions every year on litigation. The Office of Advocacy from the U.S. Small Business Administration published a study in 2005 titled Impact of Litigation on Small Business. In that article, they talk about the personal investment most small business owners have in their business and their motivation to pursue litigation if necessary to protect it. The findings in the study also showed that most small businesses tried to stay out of court and settle their case prior to a trial, but with mixed results. Business litigation is a wide category and it involves a variety of scenarios including business disputes, contract disputes, fraud and misrepresentation, intellectual property, breach of fiduciary duty, and many others.
For decades, attorneys approached with business litigation cases would require payment upfront. After the financial crisis of 2008, some clients started pushing back against the traditional upfront fee model and started looking for alternatives. Law firms are starting to respond to that need by taking business litigation cases on contingency. In 2011, the Michigan State Bar published an article titled Contingency and Referral Fees for Business Disputes wherein a variety of contingency fee arrangements that attorneys taking business litigation cases can use are described. Currently, there are many law firms, on the internet and on their websites, advertising the ability to take on commercial litigation cases on contingency. The hyper competitive nature of litigation will eventually lead to more attorneys taking on the kinds of business litigation cases mentioned above.
"Certain kinds of cases may be on a downward trend due to shifts in technology. We think we'll see more attorneys pivoting part of their contingency fee based practices towards business litigation," says Roni Dersovitz. "For us as a company, we aren't deviating from what we do; we're just adding business litigation to the list of cases we can advance on."
Attorneys with fees in business litigation settled cases where payment is delayed can apply for funding at www.legalfunding.com. In addition, plaintiffs with awards in business litigation settled cases can apply on our website. If you have any questions or want to find out more about our Fee Acceleration product, please contact RD Legal Funding at 800-565-5177.
