Harmonizing Third-Party Litigation Funding Regulation

Authors

Victoria A. Shannon, Washington and Lee University School of Law

Abstract

Third-party litigation funding is no longer a new phenomenon, but rather is a mainstay in global commerce and dispute resolution. Yet many observers still consider the third-party litigation funding industry as a "wild west" due to a lack of regulation in many countries. Some of the countries that have regulations suffer from a lack of uniformity and an array of conflicting laws at the sub-national level (i.e., the laws of states, provinces, territories, etc.). For example, the United States has a confusing patchwork of state laws on third-party litigation funding. This Article proposes harmonizing the regulatory framework for third-party litigation funding in the United States by identifying the three categories of interactions - transactional, procedural, and ethical - that make up third-party litigation funding, and suggesting avenues for regulation within those three categories. This approach will weave a regulatory "safety net" of minimum standards for the behaviors and interactions of the players in third-party litigation funding arrangements to ensure the integrity of the dispute resolution system in which they invest and participate.

Disciplines

Banking and Finance Law | Dispute Resolution and Arbitration | Law | Law and Society

Recommended Citation

Victoria A. Shannon, Harmonizing Third-Party Litigation Funding Regulation, 36 Cardozo L. Rev. 861 (2015).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/clr/vol36/iss3/3