{"id":38305,"date":"2018-05-17T07:44:27","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T07:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/?p=38305"},"modified":"2019-04-17T17:13:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T17:13:56","slug":"study-finds-judges-mostly-reject-discovery-requests-for-litigation-funding-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/study-finds-judges-mostly-reject-discovery-requests-for-litigation-funding-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Finds Judges Mostly Reject Discovery Requests for Litigation Funding Documents"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"\"Credit: Alexander Kirch\/Shutterstock.com<\/em>
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Amid a push by litigation funding opponents for greater transparency in the industry, a new industry study has found that federal and state court judges have overwhelmingly blocked attempts by litigants to peer into their opponents\u2019 legal financing arrangements.<\/p>\n

The case law analysis by Tennessee-based litigation funding broker Westfleet Advisors identified 30 cases across the United States in which a party sought to force disclosure of the other sides\u2019 litigation financing documents.<\/p>\n

In 24 of those cases\u2014or 80 percent\u2014the judge denied the discovery requests altogether or granted limited discovery, according to the study, which was authored by Westfleet CEO Charles Agee, Adams\u00a0and Reese partner Lucian Pera, and Vanderbilt University law student Steven Vickery.<\/p>\n

The study, which is presented as a comprehensive analysis of existing case law, was shared with Law.com on the condition that it not be re-published in its entirely. Certain infographics from the study have been excerpted below.<\/p>\n

\"\"Source: Westfleet Advisors study. Used with permission.<\/em>
\n<\/figure>\n

Agee said in an interview that the impetus for doing the study was to be able to inform potential clients\u2014litigants and lawyers seeking funding\u2014what the state of the law is on disclosure of related documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you read about it in the press, it\u2019s always presented as, \u2018Well, it\u2019s a mixed bag, anything can happen,\u2019\u201d Agee said. \u201cThat\u2019s not consistent with the research that Lucian and I have done over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the cases that Westfleet analyzed were in federal court, including the recent decision by a federal judge in Ohio<\/a> requiring plaintiffs in the opioid multidistrict litigation to disclose any third-party funding agreements to the court in camera.<\/p>\n

But the company also looked at decisions in state courts. It identified a case as far back as 2004 in Massachusetts called Conlon v. Rosa<\/em>, for example, in which the\u00a0judge allowed discovery of the redacted funding agreement and non-deal documents.<\/p>\n

Perhaps indicating how the litigation finance industry has grown in recent years, the bulk of the decisions came down between 2014 and 2016, according to the study.<\/p>\n

\"\"Source: Westfleet Advisors study. Used with permission.<\/em>
\n<\/figure>\n

By far, the most reliable argument to shield litigation finance-related documents from discovery in the cases analyzed was the \u201cwork-product\u201d doctrine. Of the 24 decisions in which discovery was denied or granted in a limited way, 20 of them included the work-product doctrine in their reasoning. Arguments based on relevance, the \u201ccommon interest\u201d doctrine, and attorney-client privilege did not fare as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost decisions allowing significant discovery of the funding agreement and non-deal documents in the face of a strong work-product argument by the plaintiff were decided several years ago, before the decision in Miller v. Caterpillar<\/em> in 2014, the leading decision in this area,\u201d the study said.<\/p>\n

The Miller<\/em> decision<\/a>, handed down by a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, denied discovery requests by lawyers for the construction giant Caterpillar in a trade secrets dispute on relevancy and other grounds. It is often cited by the litigation funding industry in arguing why funding agreements and related documents should not be subject to disclosure in litigation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Source: Westfleet Advisors study. Used with permission.<\/em>
\n<\/figure>\n

The conclusion of the study\u2014that judges rarely grant discovery into litigation funding documents\u2014helps explain why opponents of the industry, chiefly the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are pushing for legislative and rule changes to require that funding agreements be disclosed.<\/p>\n

The Chamber has twice pushed for a rule change<\/a> for all federal courts that would require disclosure of funding agreements in civil disputes, and also helped lobby<\/a> for pioneering legislation in Wisconsin enacted in April that imposes the same obligation.<\/p>\n

Last week, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced the Litigation Funding Transparency Act<\/a>. It would require the disclosure of litigation funding agreements in any class action or\u00a0multidistrict litigation\u00a0proceeding in federal court.<\/p>\n

One of the six cases that Westfleet identified where the funding agreement was required to be disclosed by the court was a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in which the judge agreed<\/a> that ascertaining the level of funding and any other obligations was relevant to whether class counsel could pursue the case.<\/p>\n

But there wasn\u2019t any other consistent factor among those set of cases, the study said, saying that \u201cthe unusual circumstances of the cases distinguishes them from the trend of cases upholding objections to such discovery requests.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Credit: Alexander Kirch\/Shutterstock.com Amid a push by litigation funding opponents for greater transparency in the industry, a new industry study has found that federal and state court judges have overwhelmingly blocked attempts by litigants to peer into their opponents\u2019 legal financing arrangements. The case law analysis by Tennessee-based litigation funding broker Westfleet Advisors identified 30 … <\/p>\n

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