Written by Aaron R. Winston
Last Updated: July 24, 2023 12:05pm CDT
Claim: Attorneys do not have the authority to stop their plaintiffs from receiving litigation advances.
Claimed By: Annuity
Fact Check: Although the statement made in the Annuity.org article about how attorneys don’t have the authority to stop their clients from getting advance legal funding is technically true, it is far from being the reality.
The lack of a law to authorize attorneys to deny their clients from getting “litigation advances” does not mean attorneys are breaking the law by stopping their clients.
Still, as a side point, it is crucial to mention that most lawyers permit and facilitate their clients’ legal funding requests.
They do this by answering a few surface-level questions about the case status asked by the pre-settlement funding companies.
The questions address the relevant details to help funding companies determine the most reasonable and helpful amount of pre-settlement funds they can approve:
The following includes the typical questions companies may ask about a personal injury claim:
- Is there insurance coverage?
- Has the law firm determined the policy limits (affects how much money the client can potentially get compensated for their loss)?
- If coverage exists, has the insurance company(s) stated whether it accepts liability to financially compensate the client for their loss
- Has a settlement offer been made?
- What is the current total amount of medical bills the lawyer has collected for their clients (Generally, the higher the dollar amount of the total cost of a client’s legitimate medical treatment, the more likely the client will receive a larger settlement or court award monies)?
If not already, the above info will be disclosed to the insurance company during discovery or during mediation.
When an attorney provides these brief yet pertinent details, they make it easier for their clients to get approved for the optimal amount of funding.
Neither attorneys nor the funding companies want their clients to get “overfunded,” which means they will have received too much funding regarding the case’s estimated value and risk blowing a settlement offer.
More and more attorneys see how it can be helpful long term for their client’s recovery to get a modest amount of funding, as not only does it help their clients pay for the daily cost of living (i.e., put food on the table and not get the electricity shut off.)
It helps their clients not to pressure them to settle the case too early for an amount less than the case is truly worth.
Even though the above is not a time-intensive process and consumer legal funding is mainstream, there is a minority of attorneys who have a “no funding policy” for their firm.
That means they do not allow or make it practical for companies to provide their clients with pre-settlement funding since they are unwilling to sign an Attorney Acknowledgment that acknowledges that their client received funding and that they will hold back any case proceeds to pay the funding company what it is owed before sending the final settlement check to their client.
For instance, some mass tort law firms tell their clients they will withdraw from their cases if they apply for funding.
Typically “no funding law firms” are vocal about their policy and let the clients know that is the situation.
This transparency makes it easier and less stressful for their clients in the long run than keeping clients in the dark and staying silent about the policy by not letting them know.
Although this can be very frustrating to clients, trustworthy legal funding companies accept this as being the reality and therefore do not pressure the attorneys to make a one-time exception allowing them to fund the client.
Also, legal funders do their best to divert the attention of frustrated clients from being angry at and “blaming” the law firm.
In conclusion, although no law authorizes law firms to stop their clients from getting lawsuit funding, that does not mean it is against the law, and lawyers can stop plaintiffs from doing so.
Fact Check By: Express Legal Funding
About the Author
Aaron Winston is the Strategy Director of Express Legal Funding. As "The Legal Funding Expert," Aaron has more than ten years of experience in the consumer finance industry. Most of which was as a consultant to a top financial advisory firm, managing 400+ million USD in client wealth. He is recognized as an expert author and researcher across multiple SEO industries.
Aaron Winston earned his title "The Legal Funding Expert" through authoritative articles and blog posts about legal funding. He specializes in expert content writing for pre-settlement funding and law firm blogs.
Each month, tens of thousands of web visitors read his articles and posts. Aaron's thoroughly researched guides are among the most-read lawsuit funding articles over the past year.
As Strategy Director of Express Legal Funding, Aaron has devoted thousands of hours to advocating for the consumer. His "it factor" is that he is a tireless and inventive thought leader who has made great strides by conveying his legal knowledge and diverse expertise to the public. More clients and lawyers understand the facts about pre-settlement funding because of Aaron's legal and financial service SEO mastery.
Aaron Winston is the author of A Word For The Wise. A Warning For The Stupid. Canons of Conduct, which is a book in poetry format. It consists of 35 unique canons. The book was published in 2023.
He keeps an academic approach to business that improves the consumer's well-being. In early 2022, Aaron gained the Search Engine Optimization and the Google Ads LinkedIn skills assessment badges. He placed in the top 5% of those who took the SEO skills test assessment.
Aaron's company slogans and lawsuit funding company name are registered trademarks of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He has gained positive notoriety via interviews and case studies, which are a byproduct of his successes. Aaron R. Winston was featured in a smith.ai interview (2021) and a company growth case study (2022).
In 2023, Aaron and Express Legal Funding received accolades in a leading SEO author case study performed by the leading professionals at WordLift. The in-depth data presented in the pre-settlement funding SEO case study demonstrate why Aaron Winston maintains a high-author E-E-A-T. His original writing and helpful content continue to achieve unprecedented success and stand in their own class.
Aaron was born in Lubbock, TX, where he spent the first eight years of his life. Aaron attended Akiba Academy of Dallas, TX.
