1
Case Funding: Who We Are Case Funding is one of the nation s leading legal finance specialists and has been providing financing solutions for attorneys and plaintiffs for over ten years. We were acquired and recapitalized in June 2011 by The Chesswood Group Limited, a publicly-traded company. Additionally, we are one of the founding members of ALFA (American Legal Finance Association). Over the last ten years our clients have won settlements in excess of $2 billion with the help of our financing. Since our founding, Case Funding has worked with hundreds of brokers earning the reputation as a steady and reliable funding source for their clients and providing them with unparalleled levels of customer service and highly competitive commission structures. Case Funding s broker liaison is Derek Sonderfan. Derek has worked with brokers in legal financing for more than ten years and is your main point of contact. We are a leader in these critical areas of legal finance: A. Plaintiff funding B. Working capital loans for law firms C. Medical procedure financing and medical lien purchasing How Case Funding is Different COMPENSATION: A highly competitive commission structure. There is more information about commissions on page 6. PROCESS: We are a specialty finance company with a pre-existing streamlined process you will not have to speak with six people in the process. Brokers work directly with the broker liaison to expedite all applications. UNDERWRITING: We have full-time attorney/underwriters on staff and a large network of specialist underwriters giving us the ability to timely and consistently underwrite a broad array of case types. Check our case type schedules (page 4) and look for our frequent Broker Bulletins for updates to our growing list of approved case types and changes to our guidelines. FUNDING: With The Chesswood Group s financial strength we can self-fund every deal from our substantial resources. We ve provided millions of dollars in working capital to attorneys, plaintiffs and medical providers. SUPPORT: This training booklet. We provide you with training and periodic industry updates through our Broker Bulletins. Our brokers are kept appraised of important changes as they happen. A Bit About this Booklet Unlike our past broker booklets, this one will be targeted at the experienced broker in litigation funding. However, if you are just getting started in the industry, don t think we mean to exclude you. Quite the contrary, we encourage you to contact our liaison and he will be happy to take the time to train you in more depth. Derek Sonderfan is reachable at: Email: Phone (main office): 212-608-7372 (direct line): 646-278-4169 dsonderfan@casefunding.com Fax: 212-608-6964 Yahoo IM: CaseFundingDerek 2
Our office in New York City is open 9-5 EST and Derek, located in Reno Nevada, works from 11-7 EST. Submitting a Case We currently offer three different types of plaintiff submissions: full applications with case documents (which is our preference), applications only, and simple name and number leads. Commissions for each type of submission can be found on page 6. While we don t require that our specific application be used, we do strongly suggest it. We do require that the questions we ask appear on whatever application you do submit. If you would like, you may use the attached Word document, substituting your own letterhead. In an ideal world, every case we see would be a first-time applicant that has no funding elsewhere. We realize this isn t always possible. However, for maximum commission submissions, we do require the following documentation below are the four most common types of cases we fund and the list of documents we require: For MVAs/Slip-and-Falls/Premises (most Personal Injury Cases): - completed application - police report/incident report - medical reports showing the injury (we do not need progress notes) - insurance information including the policy limits - complaint (if filed) - any written offers - the buyout of any prior fundings For medical/dental malpractice - same as above - written expert report (may be required) Pharmaceutical cases - complaint/tolling agreement (if filed) - medicals showing the injury - proof of drug usage (usually pharmacy records) - Plaintiff Fact Sheet (if available) - Written offer (if applicable) Class Action Product Liability cases - medicals showing the initial surgery - revision surgery records (if applicable) - complaint - recall notice - written offer (if applicable) When NOT to submit a case If you have submitted the lead to another funding company. We will not process cases that are being shopped around. If it is on our no list or the plaintiff resides in a state we do not advance in. This chart can be found on page 4. For MVAs, if a police report or witness statements don t exist. If there is no confirmation of insurance. While we prefer knowing the policy limits, we can sometimes consider a case without knowing them. However, if no insurance has even been established yet, we cannot consider. If the case is less than 4 months old. The only exception is if there is a very serious injury and/or surgery has already been performed. If the client is currently in bankruptcy. We do not currently accept settled cases or structured settlements. 3
Cases We Consider For a list of cases we are currently accepting please feel free to download it here.you can also request it from dsonderfan@casefunding.com or call 1-888-294-1007. 4
A Note About Who Gets Credit for Submissions While it doesn t happen often, sometimes there are questions about who should be credited for a funding. Occasionally two or more brokers will submit the same case, or an attorney on a case we ve funded will come to us for additional funding on that case or even different cases. We pledge to protect our brokers, and while it isn t always perfect, we strive to be as fair as possible to resolve any disputes by and among all our brokers. As such, here are the guidelines we adhere to: The first broker to send us a completed application and documents package will get credit for a case. If someone comes to us with just a name and # referral, and we spend three days trying to get documents unsuccessfully, and another broker sends a complete package on the 4 th day, that 2 nd broker gets credit for the case. An exception to the above is a situation where there may be a significant change in the status of a cases and a new broker brings in a second application with that new information: let s say we deny a case brought to us by broker A. Six months later, broker B brings us the same case, letting us know an offer had been made. Broker B gets credit. To prevent this, we encourage brokers to keep in contact with clients and attorneys and to follow-up periodically on promising prospects. Once we fund a client, you will receive a comparable commission on all subsequent fundings. If an attorney whose client we ve funded through a broker submits other cases to us, we offer a commission to the broker for the first six months after the initial client s funding. The best way to continue earning business after the six months is to network with that attorney and make sure all applications are sent to you directly. If we get a referral from an attorney who is in our system from more than one source (either two brokers, or from one broker and our website), then no brokers will get credit for that attorney s referrals. It simply becomes too hard to track why the attorney sent us the business. Process Once we receive a file from a broker, it is forwarded to one of our staff of underwriters and specialists. The broker should receive an email confirming this and notifying who the underwriter is. In order to keep our process as streamlined as possible, we ask that all brokers make sure the client does not call our office to speak with us or our underwriters. It only slows things down. However, we encourage you to work with the client to get the attorney to send us the required documentation and return our calls. We also ask that all brokers wait 3 business days before asking us for updates. Generally, you should hear something from the broker liaison before that, particularly if the underwriter has left multiple messages and is waiting for a call back. Should the broker liaison be unreachable, brokers can obtain updates from anyone in the office. Underwriting answers can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, hinging primarily on the attorney s responsiveness. That is why we highly recommend working with the client to emphasize the importance of their need in order to facilitate their attorney communicating with us promptly. Unless otherwise agreed upon, once a funding request is approved, Case Funding will ask the broker to obtain certain information from the client for the contract. Once the contract is drafted, we will send the contract to the broker it is your job to obtain signatures from the client and the attorney, as well as a copy of the client s photo ID. At that point, the broker should forward all relevant documents to us, and we will cut a check to the client, as well as your commission. 5
Commissions Please find the basic commission structure we offer. How Much Documentation the Broker Provided Commission* - Application and complete documents: 20% of the net to the client (certain case types only ) - Application and complete documents: 18% of the net to the client (all other case types) - Application only: 10% of the net to the client - Name/# lead only: 7% of the net to the client * Commission fully disclosed to and must be approved by the plaintiff. Commission is added to the Advance amount and funded by Case Funding. We offer 20% commission on MVA, Jones Act, Labor Law, Medical Malpractice, and S/F. NOTE: as is the case on ALL transactions, if the client balks at the level of commission, we may have to re-work the commission structure and we will revisit our fees as well in an effort to be competitive and complete the deal. The client contractually always has 5 days to rescind. Many funding companies will not send commission checks out until the rescission period has ended. Case Funding endeavors to send the commission checks when the plaintiff is funded but know that it is not always possible. Further it is only as a courtesy to our brokers that we send commissions as early as we do contractually, we are not obligated to until the grace period is over. The majority of the time brokers checks go out within 24 hours of funding. However, if a client does rescind the contract, commission is not earned and is required to be returned. Special Incentive Deals As a form of commitment to our most loyal brokers, we do offer certain incentives in addition to the above commission structure to certain brokers that have established a track record with us and are committed to bringing Case Funding the bulk of their plaintiff leads. These are worked out by Case Funding and the broker based on a number of factors, like right-of-first-refusal, volume of cases sent, and history with that broker. Some of these deals include additional bonuses for hitting certain targets, and having Case Funding provide up-front costs for advertising. If you feel you have a solid history with Case Funding and would like to be considered for one of these deals, please contact the broker liaison; we are willing to entertain a number of plans in order to increase our business together. 6
Frequently Asked Questions Plaintiff Funding Q. What are our rates? A. While our rates vary based on the details of the case (extent of injuries, the liability, the amount of available insurance, any offers on the case ), our deals usually accrue at between 3-3.5% compounded monthly. We also offer a product that accrues in six month increments. Q. Do we charge an underwriting/processing fee? A. Yes, on all cases. Typically the fee is between $250-$750 depending on the size of the deal and its complexity. All fees are disclosed in the contract. Q. Do we disclose commissions/broker fees in the contract? A. Yes. In all cases we disclose the commission in the contract. Q. What is our turn-around time? A. In most cases our underwriters are able to make an initial call to the attorney within with 24 hours and, if they have the information they need, they can make an underwriting decision at the same time. If the attorney is unresponsive, our staff calls and emails the firm nearly every day until we get to the appropriate person. We will inform you and/or the client to contact their attorney after 2 failed attempts to reach the attorney, and give additional updates as more calls are made. Q. Do we always require speaking with the attorney before having an answer? A. In general, we need to speak with someone knowledgeable about the case. For most automobile cases or certain multi-district litigation cases, we sometimes settle for a paralegal or case manager (as this will speed up the response time greatly). For more complex cases, we do require speaking with an attorney from the firm. However, on straightforward accidents with small requests, we may sometimes be able to reach an answer without speaking to anyone; this is at the underwriter s discretion. Q. Do we do installment funding? A. Yes. In an effort to keep the final repayment in line with the expected settlement, we will advance in increments. For example, instead of advancing $10,000 up front, we may fund $5,000 up front and then $1,000 a month for 5 months. Many attorneys like this option. Q. Can we consider cases where the attorney will not sign an agreement? A. No, with one exception. In Florida, many attorneys will not sign our attorney acknowledgments because of bar restrictions. There, we can consider a written statement that they will honor our lien. However, in general if an attorney says they will not sign off, we cannot do anything to help their clients. Q. What about other contract alterations? A. We will always try to work with attorneys. There are very few sections of our contract that an attorney can edit and have it still be acceptable, but we are often able to find middle ground. However, in New York, since funding companies have made an agreement with the attorney general, the contracts must be more or less unaltered. 7