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Lawsuit Financing:
An Exciting New Niche In The Cash Flow Industry (Part Three)

This is the third part of a series of articles on the specific field of Lawsuit Financing.

In this part we will cover how to get the information needed to start the process of securing Pre-Settlement Lawsuit funding for your client. We will also go into detail about how long it takes to go from initial contact, to the time the client has the money in the bank.

What Information Do I Need To Submit A Client, And How Do You Get It?
One of the beauties about this niche is how easy it is for you to submit a case for funding. There are no complicated formula or discounts to figure out. It’s truly a niche that only requires your people skills, and the ability to gather basic information from the plaintiff. In fact, you can complete the intake form just from having a friendly conversation with the client!

Those of you who have read my articles in the past know I am a great believer in asking questions. What better way to build rapport with a potential client while doing your initial “intake” then by letting them tell you about their case? By showing interest in their situation, you will not only gather the information you need to submit their case to a us but you become their friend and confidant. Most plaintiffs who come to us for Pre-Settlement funding are experiencing extreme financial hardship and want and need somebody to talk with. Always keep in mind this is about them and not about you.

You Don’t Need A Calculator To Complete The Simple Client Referral Form
In this niche there is a simple 2 page form we use to gather information to submit to the funding sources, called the “Client Referral Form.” (I will be happy to supply this form to you. Just send me an email or call me.) Remember, the initial information you need is basic and can usually be gathered just by having a conversation with the plaintiff. (This critical information is listed on the first page of the Client Referral Form. Since that is all we need from you to get started, we just cut your work in half!)

Here are a few key pieces of information we need on the Client Referral Form:

· Your contact information so we know who to get in touch with for more information, and most importantly to you, so we know who to send the commission check to later on. Make sure you include the date you are submitting the form as well as all of the different ways we can reach you. Although the date is important, more important is the date and time stamp either from an email or a fax. In the past we have had the same case show up from multiple brokers. So send in your case as soon as you can. The only fair way for us to decide who the broker of record is, is the first one who sends a Client Referral Form in to us.

· The Claimant’s contact information. (We use the terms “client, claimant or plaintiff” interchangeably when referring to the person who was injured and has filed the suit. We use the term “client” when it is the attorney who is looking for funding. There will be more on attorney funding in a later article.)

· The date of the incident, the amount of money requested, and the anticipated settlement amount. The anticipated settlement amount is usually a rough number the client was given by their attorney when they first filed the suit. It usually is an average of what other cases similar to theirs have settled for. (It may or may not surprise you that this number is usually over stated. It doesn’t surprise us at all!)

Why do we need this information? We need to know the date of the incident to learn how old the case is to get a feel for how much of the “discovery” the fact finding, and evaluation the case has gone through, and to try to guess how much longer the case will take to get to a settlement or a trial. We also have to determine if the amount of the anticipated settlement will support the amount requested and the potential fees. (The amount advanced for Pre-Settlement Funding is typically between 5% and 20% of what the funding source feels the case will settle for. For larger cases over $1 Million on appeal, the advance can be up to 30% of the actual award at that time.)

So what do you think we need next?
If you guessed the Attorney’s contact information, you are right! Not only will we need the law firm’s name, but we will also need the name of the attorney handling the case. Most law firms have a number of attorneys who work there, so we need to know who to ask for to get information on a particular case for a particular client. Since the attorneys themselves are in and out of court and meeting with clients and other attorneys, very often it is quicker and easier to get the information we need from the attorney’s legal assistant. Although it is not critical, it is nice to know the name of the person who usually answers the phone.

Some other information we will need that is critical for us to do our follow up intake is who is the “Attorney of Record” on the case? This is the lawyer who first filed the suit. They may or may not be the attorney who is now handling the case. Therefore, we need to know if there is “Co Council, another attorney working on the case as well.

Why would there be more than one law firm on any one case? Very often we see this when there is a “class action” suit. A class action suit is when a lot of people have been injured or damaged by another’s negligence. Instead of having hundreds, or thousands or even millions of lawsuits against the same defendant being tried all over the country, these suits are all grouped together and handled as one big case with the plaintiffs splitting the settlement according to some plan worked out by all the parties. An example of this would be the lawsuits that resulted from the oil spill created by the grounding of the Exxon Valdez. (Although these suits can take years to settle, because of the large number of clients and the large dollar amounts involved, we just love to find good class action suits! There is a great deal of money to be made from just one of these.)

Another situation where we see more than one law firm involved is where the attorney who originally filed the suit finds that as they get further along in the case, they need to bring in somebody with greater expertise. Some attorneys are great negotiators, and others are great in front of a jury. (Although this was not a lawsuit but a criminal trial, in the OJ Simpson case, everybody remembers the flamboyant Johnnie Cochran who was the Co Council and handled most of the case once it got to trial. However, Robert Shapiro, no relation, was the attorney of record.)

Finally, we will need a little bit of information about the Incident. Just a couple of sentences to tell us what happened. In some complicated cases we may need a one or two page summary, but most of the time just a paragraph will do fine. It is helpful but necessary for us to know at this point whether the defendant was cited, has accepted responsibility, or is counter-suing.

We will take it from here!
We will contact the funding source to see if there is initial interest in the case. If there is, we will do a follow up with the plaintiff, and then gather the rest of the vital information we need from the attorney(s). We will also find out in this particular case, what supporting documentation the funding source needs to make a decision, and gather that as well. We do all the hard parts and you still earn a sizable commission!

How Long Does It Take For The Client To Get Their Money?
Funding can happen in as little as 7 days. The amount of time it actually takes to fund a Pre-Settlement Lawsuit case is usually the result of delays caused by the client or attorney not being responsive, not the funding source. Remember, your client – the plaintiff – is usually in financial hardship and is therefore extremely motivated to help you get the information you need. They are usually prompt at calling their attorney and asking the attorney to cooperate with providing the information needed.

Here is an ideal time line for funding:

Day 1: You make contact with the client and fill out the first part of the Client Referral Form. You fax it or email it to us. We review the information together. We then get in contact with the client to introduce ourselves, get more information, go over the pricing structure and time line, and coach them on what to say to their attorney to speed things along. (There will be more on this in the next article.)

Day 1 or Day 2: We get in contact with the attorney, and send them the Client Referral Form to be completed.

Day 2 or Day 3: The attorney returns the completed Client Referral Form, and other necessary supporting documents. We put together the package and send it off to the funding source.

Day 3 or Day 4: The funding source talks with the attorney and the client as part of their due diligence. The due diligence process is completed and the contract is faxed out to the client and/or the attorney. A hard copy is overnight mailed as well. There will be a letter of protection and/or a lien placed on the case with associated paperwork being mailed and signed.

Day 4 or Day 5: The client and the attorney sign off and return the contract, and other related paperwork.

Day 5 or Day 6: Funds are overnight mailed to the client.

Just so you know, I have had a transaction fund in as little as 4 working days!

When you are asked how long it will take to fund a case, you can say, "Between 7 - 14 days, depending on how prompt your attorney is in filling out the simple form we send." It's very helpful to have the plaintiff call their attorney and let them know they are going to receive a phone call from us.

You now have the basics to get started.

In the next article in this series, we are going to go into the details of the different pricing structures and how to present them to the client and the attorney. We are going to tell you how to coach the client to get them to help make it easier for us to get the information we need from the attorney. We will also talk about how much your commission could be and when you get paid.

In the meantime…Be good to yourselves, and fair with each other.

Richard Shapiro, CFS, DCFS, is a Master Broker, a member of the Million Dollar Club and a former visiting instructor for the Pino Training Organization. Richard is the owner of Condor International Financial Services, 3305 North Swan Road, Suite 109-148, Tucson, AZ 85712. He can be reached by phone at, (520) 529-4960, or through fax at (520) 299-3450. His E-mail address is, Condor@CondorFunding.com, and his website is www.CondorFunding.com.