Litigation Funding by Personal Injury Lawyers

What is a Litigation Funding or a Litigation Loan?

Litigation funding (or a Litigation Loan) is a loan generally provided by a non-bank lender organised by the solicitors for a person who has a claim for damages for personal injuries arising out of a motor vehicle accident, work place accident, slip and fall or some other personal injury circumstances.

The loan is typically guaranteed by the Personal Injury Lawyer who organises the loan. The interest rate can be up to 28% per annum and is payable as a first charge on the damages to be received by the injured person. What this means is the litigation lender is paid even before the claimant receives compensation.

The solicitors who arrange litigation funding use the loans to pay for out of pocket expenses such as search fees, filing fees, medical reports fees, investigators reports and accountant's reports. The cost of these reports can be quite substantial.

Kerin Lawyers will initially cover litigation costs - interest free

Kerin Lawyers has a policy of NOT arranging or engaging in litigation funding or litigation loans for clients of the firm. We will pay for the outlays and other costs from our own funds. NO interest component is deputed against the client. The outlays are then deducted from settlement after settlement is received.

Litigation funding is not arranged by Kerin Lawyers as a matter of policy.

Case Study One

The claimant was a client of one of the larger, heavily advertised personal injury practices. The claimant received a Workcover payment of net $150,000 (after a Workcover refund of $45,000). The total bill delivered to the claimant was $102,000 including all the outlays. The component payable to the litigation lender for the return of principal and interest was $18,000! Naturally the claimant in that case was outraged to receive such a large legal bill. Kerin Lawyers does not engage in any of these practices.

Case Study Two

The claimant was injured in a motor vehicle accident. She engaged another of the large big advertised law firms to act on her behalf. The claimant is a professional woman. She signed up for the litigation loan in September 2010 and the draw down was for $4,000 in total. The firm immediately drewdown $3,000 into their trust account. Interest started accruing on the litigation funding from that moment even though all of the funds were not directly used at that time. Within 6 months the interest component was some $534!

Kerin Lawyers does not engage in such practices and does not set up litigation loans for clients.

Kerin Lawyers No Litigation Funding Policy

It is the policy of Kerin Lawyers that litigation funding or litigation loans create a conflict between the interest of the lender and the client. The interest of the client is paramount and Kerin Lawyers will not set up litigation loans under any circumstances.