Tribeca Capital Group Announces Pre-settlement Funding Now Allowed in Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn., June 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Litigation Funding leader Tribeca Capital Group, LLC, announces that due to the recent decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court in Maslowski v. Prospect Funding Partners LLC, the company is now accepting applications from Minnesota residents who are plaintiffs in pending lawsuits and in need of immediate cash.

On June 3, 2020, the Minnesota Supreme Court handed down its opinion, which, in effect, abolished the archaic legal doctrine known as champerty, thereby paving the way for companies specializing in litigation funding to offer their services to the people of Minnesota.

"This is a wonderful decision, not only for the litigation funding industry, but for the residents of Minnesota," says Rory Donadio, founder of Tribeca Capital, "especially because it's coming at the height of the worst recession since the Great Depression and the national unemployment rate is near 15%."

Champerty was the practice of purchasing an interest in someone else's litigation. It originated in the Middle Ages when the English gentry would use tenants to harass enemies with bogus lawsuits. Prohibiting champerty was thought to protect unsuspecting plaintiffs from opportunists who would encourage unnecessary litigation and then buy into and attempt to control the case.

In modern pre-settlement funding, the funding company provides advances to plaintiffs with commercial disputes, personal injury, employment, unlawful arrest, and other types of cases in exchange for an agreement to pay the funding company out of the proceeds. The lawsuit funding industry has grown substantially in the last twenty years by offering advances to plaintiffs who, because of unemployment or medical issues, often need cash long before their cases settle or come to trial.

Minnesota now joins a growing list of jurisdictions that have axed this ancient doctrine. The Minnesota court recognized that changes in the legal profession, including ethics regulations and rules of civil procedure, made a ban on champerty obsolete. "Many now see a claim as a potentially valuable asset, rather than viewing litigation as an evil to be avoided," reads the decision.

"Prohibiting champerty serves no purpose in modern litigation. It might have been necessary to protect people during the Middle Ages, but today plaintiffs are represented by counsel who themselves often take advantage of litigation funding to finance their participation in a case," says Donadio. "Today, we need to ensure that people have access to the courts. As the court says, just like contingency fee arrangements, litigation funding allows people to bring good cases when they could not otherwise afford it"

Tribeca Capital Group, LLC is a leading provider of pre-settlement funding in Minnesota. Since 2015, Tribeca has invested over $100 Million in litigation and helped hundreds of plaintiffs and law firms. If you are a plaintiff or an attorney in Minnesota or elsewhere, visit our website HERE to see if you qualify for consumer or commercial litigation funding.            

SOURCE Tribeca Capital Group, LLC