Saturday, April 10, 2010

Have You Been Wondering Whether Legal Funding Is Right For You? If So, Where Do You Begin?


By Dr. Tom Rhudy

Are you currently involved in a lawsuit and wondering how you're going to survive financially? Unfortunately, this situation is very real in the lives of many people across the United States. Many of these individuals experience fear in realizing that they've been injured due to someone else's negligence, but they now find themselves unable to pursue a lawsuit against that individual simply because they lack the financial resources. Fortunately for these individuals, legal funding is often readily available and may prove to be the solution to your financial distress.

This article is designed to assist individuals who find themselves in such circumstances and, as a result thereof, applying for legal funding. It is significant to note that the majority of the legal funding providers will either approve or deny an application within 24 to 72 hours upon receipt of the application. (This assumes, of course, that the applicant's attorney provides a timely-response to a request for documentation.)

If you would like to pursue legal funding, you're encouraged to notify your attorney as quickly as possible. If your attorney is unaware of the fact that you either need a lawsuit loan or have requested the litigation funding, it is unlikely that the attorney is going to be cooperative in providing the necessary documentation for you to receive the funding you desire.

Reputable litigation funding experts will contact your attorney to discuss the matter thoroughly prior to giving serious consideration to your application. If you are pro-active in notifying your attorney of your desire to obtain legal funding and the need to obtain that funding as quickly as possible, this is very likely to accelerate the process of being able to obtain the documentation required and the assistance you seek. This will also give you an opportunity to discuss your circumstances with the attorney and to impress upon the attorney the importance of obtaining a settlement loan.

The second step you must take is to identify a reputable legal funding expert. Search engines can be extremely helpful in proceeding with this step.

Google has far-and-away the largest search engine. The information obtained on Google will provide multiple resources with which to begin your investigation. Thus, when initiating your research, you are advised to begin with Google. The simplest way to approach this research is to simply enter applicable search terms such as "settlement loan," "settlement loans," "legal funding," "pre-settlement loans," etc.

Once you've done your preliminary research for this information, it would be wise to spend a little bit of time navigating the sites. Take a few minutes to review the information contained on the website and determine whether that entity appears to be appropriate for your legal funding needs.

If you submit multiple-applications, you significantly decrease the likelihood of obtaining the legal funding you seek. There are many reasons for this, however, the most significant reason is the fact that although there are many entities to which one may submit an application, there is a relatively limited-number of funding entities to which such applications will be submitted. Multiple applications indicate to the lenders that an investment in time assessing the lawsuit's merits will not be productive.

When you begin seriously considering submitting an application for legal funding, it is likely that you will want to speak to someone directly. It is disappointing to note that many of these entities provide essentially no contact information on their site. As you navigate the sites, you'll often notice that there are no telephone numbers, no fax numbers, and there is no way to contact anyone on that site directly. In fact, many of these sites intentionally obscure contact information to preclude having individuals contact them if problems arise. Rest-assured, if you have difficulty contacting someone prior to submitting your application, it will be almost impossible to contact someone once the application is submitted it you have questions.

Most individuals want to be able to reach someone with whom to speak when making such a determination. Is contact information readily available on the website? Is there a telephone number (i.e., and active telephone number) that is readily displayed. Remember, if it is difficult to find this information on the website, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to reach someone offline.

You should only work with legal funding sources that have staff dedicated to assist with questions as they arise. This is a very important decision and you deserve to have individuals with whom you may speak if necessary.

The fourth step that the applicant must take is to thoroughly discuss inherent-risks of the case with both the attorney and the legal funding expert. Although most applicants are curious to know what the interest rates are that will be charged, there are no interest rates with such funding. The fees that are charged are contingent on the inherent-risk in any particular lawsuit. The greater the risk, the higher the fee!

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