litigation financing disclosure

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One of the many issues under discussion when the question of litigation financing regulation comes up is whether parties’ use of litigation financing must be disclosed. One federal district court has implemented provisions requiring the disclosure of litigation financing, and the state of Wisconsin recently adopted measures requiring litigation financing disclosure. The federal Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure is separately studying measures that would require disclosure. In the meantime, other courts continue to struggle with the disclosure issue. The federal district court judge in Ohio presiding over the multidistrict opioid litigation has fashioned his own litigation financing disclosure approach; Northern District of Ohio Judge Dan Aaron Polster has ordered the litigants in the opioid litigation to provide litigation funding disclosure to the court itself, rather than to the parties. Interestingly, this approach has drawn praise from a leading third-party litigation funder, as discussed below. Judge Polster’s May 7, 2018 order can be found here.
Continue Reading Federal Judge Orders Litigation Funding Disclosure to the Court, Rather than to Opposing Parties

As I have previously noted (most recently here), third-party litigation financing is an increasingly important part of the litigation scene in the U.S. and around the world. In a series of articles in December, Law 360 took a comprehensive overview of litigation funding in the U.S. As discussed below, the Law 360 series provides an interesting perspective on an increasingly important part of the U.S. litigation environment.
Continue Reading The Latest on Third-Party Litigation Financing

ndcal1The recent rise of litigation funding, frequently noted on this site, has been accompanied with rising uneasiness, at least in certain quarters, as well as calls for some form of regulation. Litigation funding is in fact subject to regulation in some countries, including those where there is a longer history of third-party litigation financing; in Canada, for instance, it has become an accepted practice that litigation funding must be disclosed and judicially approved. There have been various calls in this country for litigation funding to be regulated, but up until now, now there have been no affirmative steps toward regulation. However, on January 23, 2017, the Northern District of California adopted new rule  — the first of its type — requiring the automatic disclosure of third-party funding agreements in proposed class action lawsuits.
Continue Reading District Court Adopts First-of-its-Kind Litigation Funding Disclosure Requirement