How Does Pre-Settlement Legal Funding Help You Maximize Your Lawsuit?

Pre-settlement funding provides you the financial flexibility to pursue maximum compensation by alleviating financial pressure during a long lawsuit. This also enables attorneys to dedicate the necessary time and resources to build a strong case rather than settle prematurely for a lesser amount. It also allows the justice system to function as intended, delivering fair outcomes based on the facts of a case rather than a plaintiff’s financial situation.

When you are a personal injury victim, chances are that all may not be well for you in your financial life. You may be struggling to keep your family in your home, be behind on your rent or mortgage payments, or trying to negotiate a deal with your landlord or mortgage lender to keep you in your home. You may be out of work due to injuries from the incident that lead you to file the lawsuit in the first place. Plus, scraping together money for groceries or daily costs every week may be difficult, as you may be paying your other bills when they come due.

If you are a party to a lawsuit and find yourself in the situation described above, this is precisely the position that an insurance company hopes to have you in. An insurer’s business is to make money by paying as little as possible on every claim filed with them. It is not wise to accept some lowball offer that the defense’s insurer tries to get you to take because you will get evicted, unable to put food on the table, keep the light on at your house, or any other financial burden that has arrived.

Here, we’ll look deeper at how insurance companies lowball plaintiffs, their unfair offer strategies, and how pre-settlement legal funding can help you get the settlement you deserve.

The practice of insurance companies offering unreasonable settlements

While insurance companies are required by law to consider the best interests of their policyholders when it comes to lawsuits, in most cases, they will try to save money at the expense of the person who filed the lawsuit against them.  

Insurance companies make money by trying to keep their expenditures on cases as low as possible. As a whole, an insurer’s expenses on a lawsuit come in two forms: (1) the legal fees they pay the defense attorneys for their policyholder(s) and (2) the amount of money they pay the person who filed the lawsuit. 

To put it in perspective, insurance companies save themselves money in one of two ways: 

1. First, they resolve cases quickly, so they do not have to spend capital on defense attorney’s fees for their policyholders. 
2. Second, they can settle the claim quickly, resulting in a much lower settlement than the fair value.

Consistent with the second trickery, the defense insurer is often hoping it can convince you to take a lowball settlement due to the fact that it enables them to pay less for your lawsuit in total. For that reason, the defendant’s insurer has every incentive to pay you as little as possible. 

How pre-settlement legal funding helps maximize your lawsuit

These days, it’s not uncommon to see people being forced to take any offer the defense’s insurer offers them simply because they need the money to survive. Fortunately, you can take your time to force them to pay you the total value of your claim if you have a way to pay your mortgage/rent, grocery bills, utilities, and other everyday living expenses. 

Obtaining pre-settlement legal funding can enable your lawyer to hold out for maximum value in settlement negotiations with insurance companies. A settlement advance or pre-settlement legal funding can tide you over for the time your lawsuit is pending before it resolves, either through a settlement or after a trial is won. It is the key to outlasting the insurer from squeezing you and forcing you to accept less money for your settlement than it is worth. 

In settlement negotiations, leverage is everything, and the insurer will try to use any monetary difficulties on your part as leverage to force you to accept less money than you might otherwise be able to obtain. In contrast, pre-settlement legal funding can enable you to avoid having to accept an undervalued settlement offer because you are in a short-term financial crunch. It defrays many of the costs associated with everyday living, like mortgage/rent, utilities, household bills, etc., without putting you into a burdening financial position.

The takeaway

You only have one shot with a personal injury lawsuit. Regardless of whether your case settles or goes to trial and you either win or lose, you cannot file suit a second time based on a particular incident. Similarly, you must ensure you obtain the maximum compensation possible the first time. Otherwise, you are leaving money on the table. 

If you are experiencing financial difficulties while involved in a personal injury lawsuit, pre-settlement funding can help you hold out longer to settle for what your case is truly worth. It can help your attorney negotiate a maximum settlement while you support yourself instead of settling for the first offer the insurance company wants you to take.

Pre-settlement legal funding does not require monthly payments, credit checks, or income verification; it has no risk. That means if you don’t win your case, you won’t be responsible for paying back your borrowed funds.

Baker Street Funding offers low-interest pre-settlement loans with competitive terms in order for borrowers to save money once they win their case. Baker Street Funding also provides protection to all borrowers, which gives you the opportunity to stop your interest rate in the third year of the loan if your lawsuit takes more than three years to resolve. 

Ready to apply for pre-settlement funding? Get pre-qualified for an evaluation today.