The verdict is in: Third-party litigation funding contributes to high home insurance rates

• What’s happening: The lucrative, billion dollar third-party litigation financing (TPLF) industry is helping drive the length and cost of litigation and contributing to increasing homeowners

insurance premiums across the country. Keep reading

• **Tell me more:**While some argue that TPLF can provide financial support for plaintiffs who otherwise couldn’t afford legal representation, it often comes at a high cost, including substantial attorney’s fees and investors whose only interest in the lawsuit is the financial outcome.

  •  These funding arrangements raise the question of whose interests are really the priority in the litigation–the plaintiff’s or the investors’?

• Going digital: TPLF plays a major part in attorney advertising and “litigation harvesting,”which involves lead generators enrolling people in lawsuits without direct attorney contact, potentially violating legal advertising rules. Does MMA ring a bell?

  • One tactic used by some attorneys is manipulation of search engine optimization (SEO) and black-hat techniques to direct policyholders to legal services instead of their insurance companies.

• ‼️Florida-based St. John’s Insurance saw lawsuits skyrocket from 180 to over 3,500 per year, the result of strategic SEO spending and digital marketing by public adjusters and law firms.

• In his own words: “We knew this had to be more than billboards. This had to be more than door knocking. It was an escalation of unprecedented proportions.”

Read the full article here.