How we are making the litigation finance ‘Groan’ a thing of the past

The team at FINLEGAL.IO has carried out indepth research with litigators over the past year as we developed the first online marketplace for litigation funding. In fact, between us we have spoken with litigators across scores of firms, from the very largest to sole practitioners.

We have listened carefully to good insights from lawyers into the market and their experiences of seeking funding. We have had great feedback from funders too.

Despite hundreds of discussions, at no point has a single lawyer said to us, “the process works really well”, or, “applying for funding…we love it”!

Quite the opposite. When we ask them about the funding application process lawyers groan about it for being expensive and time-consuming, sucking up resources with often little return. They also bemoan what they describe as “tyre kicking” by funders. Funders by contrast express concern about the resource the put into enquiries that don’t meet their criteria.

It’s our mission to make the process of obtaining funding more efficient and effective through the use of technology. We will also alleviate may of the common complaints for litigators. These include:

• A different form requiring different information from every funder, which of course leads to a lengthy and seemingly needless duplication of effort for every funding application.

• How the length of time for applying for funding is particularly off-putting to lawyers applying to multiple funders for lower value matters.

• How the complexity and jargon prevents more junior lawyers from completing applications on behalf of partners.

• All that time applying, but little information if you are rejected over why that decision was made.

The FINLEGAL.IO platform tackles all of these. Its benefits include:

• You apply once with a standard form, with our application going immediately to all funders on the platform.

• We have online explainers at each stage to help those new to the process with understanding the terminology, requirements and what is best practice.

• Knowing exactly which funders are interested in funding your request and the status of your application.

• Funders are able to make quick assessments based on key data which is easier to interrogate for funder users.

I am not sure lawyers will ever look forward to the prospect of filling out a form… but we are confident that the FINLEGAL.IO platform makes the process as painless and fast as possible.

Also, by allowing you to quickly seek a range of offers simultaneously, it will be ensuring you and your clients get the best possible terms. Definitely something we hope will remove the groan from getting external funding from now on.