In working with so many solicitors in every conceivable sector of law, I often hear how difficult it has been to obtain legal funding since the banking crisis. Commercial solicitors have struggled to obtain funding for their practices, particularly if they were largely reliant on the commercial property sector. Personal injury solicitors have had their legal funding for disbursements cut or removed completely. I have heard from many solicitors that the banks have clearly pulled back on a lot of their legal funding. Whereas once solicitors seemed to be a sure fire bet, the change in the economy and perhaps the uncertainty around the legal sector with ABS’ now in force adds to this problem.
In the personal injury sector, which has always relied on substantial volumes of legal funding, there is huge uncertainty now because Government Ministers like Jack Straw have decided to charge in and order changes when clearly they do not have a clue how the industry works (and sadly no interest in finding out either). As an aside, this has been a real eye opener to me. I assumed when the Government decided to make changes to any business processes they would actually take the time to find out the truth before acting, I didn’t think decisions were made purely based on one party having bigger pockets, yet the insurers seem to be winning. I realise now how incredibly naiive I was to think that justice would out….. honestly Nick 20 plus years in the law you should know better.
Anyway, eye opening lesson over and back to legal funding and the fact that all this uncertainty has culled the amount of funding for solicitors available, or so I thought! I was approached by a legal funding provider who said they could help my solicitor clients and contacts. As when I am approached by any new provider I always like to test them out with people I know to see if they like them, can work with them, and the deals offered are good. If they are, I am happy to tell other solicitors about them if they ask. If not, I prefer to protect my reputation and not mention them. So two firms of solicitors who both were in urgent need of legal funding and were having trouble securing it from tradional lines approached me and asked if I knew anyone who could help. I connected the two firms of solicitors with the new legal funding provider, on the basis that of course they do their own due diligence, and within two months both firms secured the amount of funding that they needed and were very, very happy with the whole experience. Here is what one of them said:
"Many thanks for your kind introduction to the legal funding provider earlier this year. I was able successfully to raise additional capital for my business with them, despite the smaller size of my pension fund. Many thanks. "
The scheme is unique and very, very clever. If you are in need of legal funding and have access to any pension fund (personal or business related) the scheme can release funds for you at very attractive interest rates, and relatively quickly too. It also provides you with a lot more control over the amount of your legal funding and interest rates. As I say, it is clever and unique.
So if you are in need of funding for your legal practice, whether for disbursement funding, to fund a merger or to fund a marketing strategy to dramatically grow your business (says the legal marketing guy hopefully), it is well worth you having a look at this scheme. However, if you have no personal or pension fund whatsoever to access, I do also know two businesses who specialise in finding more traditional sources of legal funding, so there are still other options for you.
Whichever method of legal funding you are interested in, if you would like more information, please fill in the form below below and I will arrange for someone to get in touch and provide you with further details (no cost or obligation to proceed):
Author: Nick Jervis