How to Fund Your Lawsuit to Get the Justice You Deserve

This is a guest blog post from LexShares, a leading funder of commercial litigation. They can be reached by emailing info@lexshares.com or calling 877-290-4443.

As many daily headlines in the business sections of newspapers across the country will attest, business is not for the faint of heart. Meticulously planned deals can fall through at the eleventh hour; partners may prioritize their own short-term gains over the long-term well being of the company; competitors could engage in smear campaigns meant to expand their base at any cost, even at the expense of good will others took decades to build. When your business suffers unfairly from the misdeeds of third parties, sometimes the only recourse is to resolve the dispute in court.

For these sorts of injuries, a business tort lawsuit can be the best way to set things right. Business torts, also known as economic torts, encompass a range of claims, mostly stemming from principles at common law, that can be brought against businesses, their officers, or other parties whose actions lead to an economic injury or loss. Actions commonly categorized as business torts include:

Unfair competition (where competitors use illegal means to gain an advantage)
Breach of fiduciary duty (where a person who serves in a fiduciary capacity – such as an officer, board member, or employee – fails to fulfill his or her responsibility)
Commercial disparagement or trade libel (where someone publishes derogatory information about an individual or business meant to discourage others from dealing with them)
Fraudulent misrepresentation (where a false representation is made knowingly or recklessly with the intention of being relied upon, and that representation is, in fact, detrimentally relied upon)
Tortious interference (wrongful interference with a contractual or business relationship)
Trade secret misappropriation (theft of economically valuable information whose secrecy is a core aspect of the advantage it confers)

Frequently, however, proving another party’s misdeeds to a court’s satisfaction can be a difficult and protracted endeavor. As is often the case with complex litigation in general, a business tort lawsuit has the potential to be arduous, time-consuming, and expensive for all involved. Not every business is equipped to handle the stresses and costs of litigation, especially if it is already reeling economically due to the malfeasance that gave rise to the claim.

Where resources rather than merits limit your capacity to seek justice for business wrongs, litigation finance can help. Also called litigation funding or lawsuit funding, it allows third-party investors to help fund case-related expenses. Litigation finance can be used to retain top-tier legal counsel, acquire expert testimony, and engage in premier courtroom strategies such as mock trials and simulations, or even additional funding to give an underlying business the ability to endure the litigation process, in exchange for a portion of the recovery should the lawsuit succeed. Even then, the process of seeking out and acquiring litigation finance can itself be an onerous task, especially for plaintiffs already strained to the breaking point both by the demands of litigation and the economic injury underlying the lawsuit. This is where LexShares excels at connecting meritorious plaintiffs with accredited investors to the mutual benefit of both.

By the very nature of the action, plaintiffs in business tort lawsuits come to court in less than optimal financial shape. When the other party has profited from the malfeasance, the divide between the resources that plaintiffs and defendants can bring to bear only widens. LexShares and its base of accredited investors can provide plaintiffs equal access to the resources, expertise, and support they need to give them their day in court and the chance to obtain the just outcome they deserve.

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