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Full-Text Articles in Law
Follow The Money? A Proposed Approach For Disclosure Of Litigation Finance Agreements, Maya Steinitz
Follow The Money? A Proposed Approach For Disclosure Of Litigation Finance Agreements, Maya Steinitz
Faculty Scholarship
Litigation finance is the new and fast-growing practice by which a non-party funds a plaintiff’s litigation either for-profit or for some other motivation. Some estimates placed the size of the litigation finance market at 50–100 billion dollars. Both proponents and opponents of this newly -emergent phenomenon are in agreement that the it is the most important development in civil justice of this era. Litigation finance is already transforming civil litigation at the level of the single case as well as, incrementally, at the level of the civil justice system as a whole. It is also beginning to transform the way …
Letter To The Hon. Sen. Orrt (Nys Senate) Regarding Litigation Finance (Lawsuit Lending) (2018), Maya Steinitz
Letter To The Hon. Sen. Orrt (Nys Senate) Regarding Litigation Finance (Lawsuit Lending) (2018), Maya Steinitz
Faculty Scholarship
Following testimony to the New York State Senate's Standing Committee on Consumer Protection (available on SSRN and YouTube), Professor Steinitz was asked to elaborate on her recommendation for a statutory minimum recovery requirement to protect consumers of litigation financing. Enclosed is her response to this inquiry.
Testimony On Third Party Financing Of Lawsuits, Maya Steinitz
Testimony On Third Party Financing Of Lawsuits, Maya Steinitz
Faculty Scholarship
In this written testimony, Professor Steinitz addresses bills pending in the New York State Senate and Assembly relating to consumer litigation finance. Among other things, she suggests (1) establishing a “Minimum Payment” for plaintiffs, instead of (or in addition to) flat rates or interest caps; and (2) defining the scope of application by applying an “Unsophisticated Plaintiff” test rather than by focusing on the financing amount. She also addresses other matters implicated by the bills such as whether lawyers should be permitted to provide financial advice, prohibition of prepayment penalties, registration requirements, and right of rescission in the context of …
Tax Ferrets, Tax Consultants, Bounty Hunters, And Hired Guns: The Property Tax Netherworld Fueled By Contingency Fees And Champertous Agreements, J. Lyn Entrikin
Tax Ferrets, Tax Consultants, Bounty Hunters, And Hired Guns: The Property Tax Netherworld Fueled By Contingency Fees And Champertous Agreements, J. Lyn Entrikin
Faculty Scholarship
Contingency fee agreements between local tax assessors and contract auditors on the one hand, and property owners and private tax consultants on the other, create perverse financial incentives that undermine the integrity of state and local tax administration. When local governments engage outside auditors to identify undervalued or escaped taxable property, the practice raises serious due process and ethical concerns. As a matter of policy, diverting a share of property tax revenue to private third parties in consideration for outsourced tax assessment services undermines public accountability and reduces net property tax revenue for local government services. And when states allow …
The Illegality Of Contingency-Fee Arrangements When Prosecuting Public Natural Resource Damage Claims And The Need For Legislative Reform, Julie E. Steiner
The Illegality Of Contingency-Fee Arrangements When Prosecuting Public Natural Resource Damage Claims And The Need For Legislative Reform, Julie E. Steiner
Faculty Scholarship
Private attorneys are entering into contingency-fee based special counsel agreements with states, territories and tribes, to bring public natural resource damage (NRD) claims. Under this agreement, special counsel brings a NRD action on behalf of the public and fronts the litigation costs, but deducts a percentage of the public's damage recovery to pay the attorney's contingency fee; the remainder goes into a fund to be allocated by the government's NRD trustee. Because NRD claims implicate gargantuan damage awards, the legality of depleting such a damage award by a substantial percentage to pay an attorney's fee is a significant issue that …
Principled Opinions, Susan P. Koniak
Principled Opinions, Susan P. Koniak
Faculty Scholarship
Professor Brickman is not pleased. Indeed, he is outraged, if the sound and fury of his article is to be taken at face value. He and twenty-five others, lawyers and legal educators, sent the American bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility (the "Committee" or "Ethics Committee") a letter (the "Letter") asking for an opinion. They got one which Professor Brickman describes as "wrong as a matter of ethics law, malevolent as a matter of public policy, disingenuous in its presentation, unfounded it [its] critical assumptions ... and blatantly self-interested in elevating lawyers' financial interests above their traditional …