On February 13, US Senators Chuck Grassley, Thom Tillis, John Cornyn and Ben Sasse, all members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation requiring disclosure of third-party litigation financing agreements to the court and named parties to (1) any class action lawsuit filed in federal court, and (2) any claim that is aggregated into a federal multi-district litigation proceeding. Currently, the existence and terms of third-party litigation financing agreements, whereby hedge funds and other lenders finance the cost of civil litigation with the expectation of sharing in a portion of any recovery, are rarely disclosed to the court or opposing parties, creating the potential for conflicts of interest.
Continue Reading Sen. Chuck Grassley Leads Effort to Improve Transparency of Third-Party Financing in Civil Litigation