Get A Lawsuit Loan In 24 Hours
The process of getting a lawsuit loan isn’t complicated or time-consuming. All you have to do is fill out our online application or give us a call, then one of our specialists will guide you through it!
It takes about five minutes from start to finish – including submitting all necessary documents for verification purposes. Once we receive this information from your attorney’s office we can have your approval within 24 hours.
3 Step Process To Apply For Lawsuit Loan:
- You apply and with no credit check
- Discuss your claim with your attorney and let him know we will be contacting him
- We send you funds once approved
We will send you and your attorney a DocuSign agreement contract to be executed. Then, we can either wire transfer the money directly into a bank account, send an overnight check (or, if preferred), we’ll even pay with Western Union! It’s that easy.
Get Started With Your Lawsuit Loan Application!
Helpful Tips For A Smooth Process
It’s best to have your attorney information ready when you call or fill out the online application. This will include the first & last name of the law firm, telephone number (with area code), email id, name & email id of paralegal/case managers. This helps make the process easy.
Be able to explain the essential information regarding your lawsuit case. It helps us assess the strength of your case quickly
Fill Our Online Form Today!
Why Choose Direct Legal Funding?
Direct Legal Funding Has Been Providing Competitive Low-Rate Lawsuit Loans Nationwide for Many Years
| ✓ Non-Recourse Cash Advance Only pay if you win | % Rates as Low as 2% Competitive Rates | ⚡ Eligibility Within 24 Hours Fast Cash Advances | $ No Monthly Payments Repay at Settlement |
Direct Legal Funding is your one-stop for lawsuit loans, settlement loans, and cash advances. For over 13 years we have been offering a fast turnaround time with an emphasis on customer satisfaction and transparency.
Apply and Get Cash Today!
Clients Love The Direct Legal Funding Team!
Direct Legal Funding Offers Lawsuit Loans Nationwide:
Our footprint is nationwide, but certain states have specific laws and regulation, you may click the links below to read any relevant state-specific information:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
What Is a Lawsuit Loan?
Despite the name, a “lawsuit loan” isn’t technically a loan in the traditional sense. More accurately, it’s a cash advance against your potential settlement or court award. The funding is non-recourse, meaning you don’t pay it back if you lose your case.
This distinction matters because it affects everything from how these transactions are regulated to what happens if your case doesn’t go as planned.
The terminology can vary across the industry. You might hear it referred to as:
- Pre-settlement funding
- Legal funding
- Litigation financing
- Settlement funding
- Pre-settlement cash advance
All these terms generally describe the same financial arrangement: a company provides you money now in exchange for a portion of your future settlement or judgment.
How It Differs from Traditional Loans
Traditional loans create a debtor-creditor relationship. You borrow money, and you’re personally obligated to repay it regardless of what happens in your life.
Miss payments, and your credit score plummets. Default entirely, and the lender can pursue collection actions against you.
Lawsuit funding operates differently because most arrangements are non-recourse, meaning if you lose your case or collect less than expected, you don’t have to repay more than your settlement or judgment.
However, this distinction has been challenged in courts. In a 2015 Colorado Supreme Court case, Oasis Legal Finance Group v. Coffman, the court ruled that these transactions are indeed loans subject to state consumer credit codes.
This decision emphasized that a loan is made when a creditor creates debt by advancing money to the debtor, and neither the Colorado law nor prior cases require the borrower’s personal recourse for an advance to be considered a loan.
Why People Seek Lawsuit Funding
The American civil justice system, despite its strengths, operates slowly. Personal injury claims often take between one and two years to resolve from filing through settlement or verdict.
Some straightforward cases settle in six months or less, while complex lawsuits that proceed to trial can take three to four years.
During this waiting period, life continues with all its financial demands:
Medical Bills: Even with insurance, out-of-pocket medical expenses can quickly drain savings. Physical therapy, medication, medical equipment, and follow-up appointments all cost money.
Lost Income: Many injury victims are unable to work while recovering. Even temporary disability often means reduced income precisely when medical expenses are highest.
Daily Living Expenses: Rent or mortgage payments, utilities, groceries, car payments, and insurance premiums don’t pause while you await your settlement.
Mounting Pressure: As bills pile up, creditors don’t care about your pending lawsuit. They want payment now. This pressure can force people into difficult decisions, like accepting inadequate settlement offers just to survive financially.
This is where settlement funding plays a crucial role. It provides breathing room so you’re not forced to settle your case prematurely for less than it’s worth.
How Lawsuit Loans Work: The Process Explained
Application and Qualification
The process to qualify is straightforward, with most funding companies assessing your case by examining information such as the type and severity of injury, liability clarity, potential settlement value, and strength of evidence.
Here’s what funding companies typically evaluate:
Attorney Representation: Most funding companies prefer working with plaintiffs who have legal representation because it assures them that the case is being handled reliably. While some companies might fund unrepresented plaintiffs, it’s rare and involves more stringent qualification processes.
Liability: Who was at fault? The clearer the other party’s liability, the stronger your chances of approval. Cases where fault is disputed may face more scrutiny or receive lower funding amounts.
Case Type: Certain types of cases are more commonly funded. Personal injury claims from car accidents, slip and falls, workplace accidents, and medical malpractice are typical. Some funders also work with employment discrimination, civil rights, and product liability cases.
Potential Settlement Value: Funders need to see that your expected recovery will be sufficient to repay their advance plus fees. A case likely to settle for a small amount may not qualify for substantial funding.
Case Progress: Many companies can provide funding at various stages—whether you’ve just filed your claim or you’re already deep into litigation.
What funding companies typically don’t check: your credit score, employment history, or income. Because legal funding is non-recourse, regulation differs from normal loans, and repayment depends entirely on case success rather than personal finances.
Timeline from Application to Funding
One significant advantage of this type of funding is speed. Traditional bank loans can take weeks or months. Settlement funding often moves much faster.
Once your application is approved, you can often receive funds into your bank account within 24-48 hours. In many cases, funding can be provided in as little as one business day.
The typical timeline looks like this:
- Initial Contact (Day 1): You reach out to a funding company and provide basic information about your case.
- Attorney Contact (Days 1-2): The funding company contacts your attorney to verify case details and assess its strength.
- Review and Approval (Days 2-3): The company evaluates whether to approve funding and for what amount.
- Agreement and Funding (Days 3-4): If approved, you review and sign the funding agreement, then receive your money.
Your Attorney’s Role
Your attorney cannot legally loan money to their clients for personal expenses or other costs because this practice is prohibited, as it can create a conflict of interest. However, attorneys play an essential role in the funding process.
The funding company will need your permission to contact your lawyer. Your attorney provides crucial information: case details, estimated settlement value, timeline expectations, and their professional assessment of your case’s strength.
While your lawyer might advise against it, the decision to get a lawsuit cash advance from pre-settlement funding is entirely up to you. That said, discussing this option with your attorney is wise. They can help you understand whether the terms are reasonable and how the funding might affect your overall recovery.
Understanding Costs and Terms
This is perhaps the most important section of this guide. The cost of settlement funding can vary dramatically between companies, and understanding these costs is essential to making an informed decision.
Fee Structures
Many transactions are structured as loans, creating a creditor-debtor relationship, though arrangements where repayment is wholly conditional upon litigation success may be deemed sales of an interest in future proceeds rather than true debt.
Most funders characterize deals as outright purchases of litigation proceeds or contingent legal fee claims to avoid potentially applicable usury statutes.
The amount you pay back typically includes:
The Principal: The amount you received upfront.
Use Fees or Finance Charges: This is what the funding costs you over time.
Administrative Fees: Some companies charge application fees, processing fees, or other costs.
The way these charges accumulate varies. Some companies use simple interest, others use compound interest. Some apply a multiplier that increases based on how long your case takes.
In one case, companies used a multiplier that increases with the length of time it takes to resolve claims, along with various application and administrative fees.
Interest Rates and Regulations
Unlike other types of lending, the federal government doesn’t regulate lawsuit loans, and only some states have put consumer safeguards in place.
Currently, there is no nationwide requirement to disclose litigation funding agreements to courts or opposing parties in federal litigation. This lack of federal oversight has created a patchwork of state regulations.
States with Consumer Protections
The American Legal Finance Association (ALFA), the leading group of consumer legal finance companies, has supported legislation in six states, Oklahoma, Vermont, Indiana, Nevada, Utah, and Tennessee, specifically regulating the consumer legal funding sector to protect consumers from deceptive and abusive practices.
States with high levels of protection include Maine, Ohio, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Vermont, while Indiana has legal protections but also limitations on product availability.
In Ohio, litigation funding companies must inform potential clients of their limited rights in decision-making processes related to the lawsuit under Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 1349.55. Ohio and Nebraska provide borrowers with a five-day window to cancel their contracts without penalty.
Nevada has an interest rate cap of 40 percent under NRS Chapter 604C.
What Happens When Your Case Settles
If you take out lawsuit settlement loans and win your case, your attorney will pay back the advance when they distribute the settlement.
The process typically works like this:
- Your case settles, or you win at trial
- The settlement funds or judgment amount is paid to your attorney’s trust account
- Your attorney disburses funds in this order:
- Any liens (medical providers, government agencies, etc.)
- The legal funding company (principal plus accumulated fees)
- Attorney fees (typically 33-40% of the recovery in contingency cases)
- You receive the remaining amount
If the litigation proceeds are less than the amount due, plaintiffs are not required to repay the shortfall under non-recourse agreements.
Types of Cases That Qualify
Not all legal cases qualify for funding. Companies focus primarily on civil claims with clear monetary damages and good prospects for recovery.
Commonly Funded Case Types
Personal Injury Claims:
This is the most common category, including:
- Motor vehicle accidents (cars, trucks, motorcycles)
- Slip and fall accidents
- Workplace injuries
- Medical malpractice
- Wrongful death claims
Funding companies provide pre-settlement lawsuit loans on nearly all personal injury cases, requiring that you were injured in an accident that was not your fault, you are above the age of 18, and you have hired an attorney to pursue your claim.
Employment Cases: Discrimination, wrongful termination, wage and hour disputes, and harassment claims.
Civil Rights Violations: Cases involving constitutional rights violations, police misconduct, or civil rights abuses.
Product Liability: Injuries caused by defective products, including pharmaceutical injuries and faulty medical devices.
Commercial Litigation: Some funders work with businesses involved in contract disputes, intellectual property cases, or other commercial matters, though this represents a different segment of the litigation funding market.
Cases That Typically Don’t Qualify
- Family law matters (divorce, custody) rarely qualify because outcomes are less predictable and settlements harder to enforce.
- Criminal cases don’t qualify because they aren’t civil matters with monetary damages.
- Small claims court cases usually don’t meet funding minimums.
- Cases very early in the process with unclear liability may struggle to get approved.
Regulatory Landscape and Consumer Protection
The litigation funding industry exists in a complex regulatory environment that varies significantly by state and continues to evolve.
Federal Regulation Status
There is no federal regulation that applies specifically to litigation finance. Various regulatory efforts have emerged, including a bill introduced in October 2024 by U.S. Representative Darrell Issa that would require parties in civil lawsuits to disclose third-party funding agreements, including the identities of financiers and copies of related contracts.
The Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules formed a subcommittee in 2024 to evaluate the need for new federal rules governing the disclosure of third-party financing.
State-by-State Differences
Maine has restrictions on lawsuit loan agreements, but no rate cap on interest.
On the other hand, New York allows lawsuit loans without regulation, with court systems upholding these contracts.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma requires companies to be registered with the state and make disclosures to clients before entering legally binding agreements, according to 14A O.S. 3-801-817.
Industry Self-Regulation
The ALFA, formed in 2004, represents leading consumer legal funding companies and promotes fair, ethical, and transparent funding standards. ALFA developed standardized documentation for funding agreements used by members to ensure adherence to best practices.
All ALFA members must abide by the ALFA Code of Conduct, which supports best practices and requires funders to comply with the highest ethical standards, with transactional transparency and transparent disclosure to consumers as the cornerstone.
ALFA members do not provide funds for any costs, fees, or expenses related to the prosecution of litigation; plaintiffs can solely use funds for personal life needs like rent, food, or other costs.
It’s worth noting that consumer legal funding is non-recourse, with funders assuming all the risk, and 12 to 20 percent of funded cases are lost or settle for insufficient amounts.
Advantages and Drawbacks
Benefits of Lawsuit Funding
Financial Relief During Crisis: When you’re unable to work and bills are piling up, settlement funding provides immediate cash to cover necessities.
No Personal Financial Risk: If you lose your case, you are not required to repay the funds under non-recourse funding. This is fundamentally different from credit cards or personal loans.
Negotiating Power: Financial pressure often forces injury victims to accept inadequate early settlement offers. Having access to funds means you can wait for fair compensation rather than settling out of desperation.
No Credit or Employment Requirements: There is no reason to check credit or employment status because the only things that matter are the quality and value of your case.
Quick Access to Cash: The process is simple and usually takes no more than a week to get a legal advance from most reputable settlement loan companies.
Drawbacks and Concerns
High Cost: One concern about litigation funding is that it is costly to the plaintiff and may take a very large chunk out of the plaintiff’s eventual settlement or verdict. After paying attorney fees and the amount owed to the legal financing company, the plaintiff may receive little or no additional money beyond any amount received from the advance.
Lack of Transparency: There are few restrictions on how much lawsuit funding companies can charge for their services or how interest rates and other terms must be disclosed, making it tough to find and compare rates and other terms.
Potential to Prolong Litigation: There is some concern that if widely adopted, litigation finance could prolong litigation and reduce the frequency of settlements of civil lawsuits.
Variable Quality Among Providers: Without comprehensive federal regulation, the quality and fairness of funding companies vary dramatically.
Compounding Costs: Time works against you with many funding arrangements. The longer your case takes, the more you owe—sometimes at compounding rates that can dramatically increase your total repayment amount.
Choosing a Reputable Funding Company
Given the variation in quality and ethics among funding providers, choosing carefully is crucial.
Red Flags to Avoid
Lack of Transparency: If a company won’t clearly explain their fees, how charges accumulate, or what you’ll owe under different scenarios, walk away.
Pressure Tactics: Reputable companies give you time to review contracts and consult your attorney. High-pressure sales tactics are warning signs.
Excluding Your Attorney: When a lawsuit loan company encourages you to leave your lawyer out of the process, that is a major red flag.
Requiring Out-of-Pocket Repayment: If a company says you must repay even if you lose your case, it’s not truly non-recourse funding.
Excessive Application Fees: While some companies charge reasonable processing fees, excessive upfront costs before approval are concerning.
Questions to Ask Before Signing
Understanding what you’re agreeing to protects you from unpleasant surprises later.
Is this funding truly non-recourse? Get clear confirmation in writing that you owe nothing if your case is unsuccessful.
How are fees calculated? Is it simple interest, compound interest, or a multiplier system? How often do charges compound?
What happens if my case settles quickly? Some companies allow early repayment with reduced costs. Others charge the same regardless.
Are there any hidden fees? Application fees, processing fees, and wire transfer fees—get a complete picture.
How will repayment work? Your attorney should handle this directly from the settlement proceeds, but confirm the process.
What is my total repayment obligation? Ask for specific scenarios: if your case settles in 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, what will you owe?
Industry Membership and Accreditation
When considering a settlement funding provider, plaintiffs and attorneys should deal only with providers that are members of the ALFA.
ALFA membership indicates a company has committed to industry best practices and ethical standards. While not a guarantee of perfect service, it provides some assurance of baseline ethical operations.
Check the Better Business Bureau rating and read reviews from past clients. Look for patterns in complaints. Isolated issues can happen to any company, but recurring problems signal deeper concerns.
Making Your Decision
Deciding whether lawsuit funding makes sense for your situation requires an honest assessment of your needs and the specific terms available to you.
When Lawsuit Funding Makes Sense
You might reasonably consider settlement funding if:
- You’ve exhausted other options
- You have a strong case with clear liability
- You understand and accept the costs involved
- Your attorney supports this decision
- You’ve chosen a reputable, transparent funding company
Protecting Yourself
If you decide to proceed with lawsuit funding, take these protective steps:
Read Everything Carefully: Every word of the agreement matters. Don’t sign anything you don’t fully understand.
Involve Your Attorney: Have your lawyer review the funding agreement before you sign. Their experience can catch problematic terms.
Get Everything in Writing: Verbal promises mean nothing. All terms, fees, and conditions should be clearly stated in the contract.
Calculate Total Cost: Ask the funding company to provide written calculations showing what you’ll owe at different time points. This helps you understand the real cost of funding.
Keep Records: Maintain copies of all documents, correspondence, and statements related to your funding arrangement.
The Path Forward
Lawsuit funding exists because our legal system, despite its strengths, creates financial hardship for people pursuing legitimate claims. The months or years it takes to resolve a case can devastate families already struggling with injury, loss of income, and mounting bills.
For some people in desperate circumstances with strong cases, settlement funding provides essential breathing room to pursue fair compensation rather than accepting inadequate offers. For others, the high cost makes it a poor choice when alternatives exist.
The most important thing is making an informed decision. Understand what you’re agreeing to, compare your options realistically, and choose a path that serves your best interests both now and when your case concludes.
Contact Direct Legal Funding Now
If you’re considering pre-settlement funding, Direct Legal Funding is here to provide transparent, ethical funding solutions. We believe in treating every client with respect, clearly explaining all terms, and ensuring you understand exactly what funding will cost.
Contact us now to discuss your situation and learn whether funding might help you pursue the justice you deserve.
Direct Legal Funding is your one-stop for lawsuit loans, settlement loans, and cash advances. For over 13 years we have been offering a fast turnaround time with an emphasis on customer satisfaction and transparency.