Qualifications for Pre-Settlement Legal Funding Approval

One of the first few questions we’re asked when speaking with a new client is, “how do I know if I qualify?” That’s a great question! The qualifications to get approved for a pre-settlement legal funding are pretty straightforward, and will depend solely on how strong a case you have against the defendant (the person(s) who is at fault for the accident) and what are the chances you’ll win your case.

What determines how good a case you have? There are three basic, but broad qualifying factors that we review to determine the quality of your case and if we can approve you for a pre-settlement legal funding.

• The extent of the injuries you suffered
• The actual liability on part of the defendant
• The defendant’s ability to pay any claim brought against them.

The “extent of your injuries” includes not only the direct physical and/or mental injuries, but also how have those injuries impacted the rest of your life.

The physical injuries are fairly evident rather quickly after an accident and those can be objectively determined and treated by a physician or team of physicians. With your physical injuries, you may also have suffered emotional and/or mental trauma. This is not as easily documented or supported, and may not even show up for months after the accident occurred.

The extent of your injuries also includes the negative impact those injuries have had on other areas of your life. For example, did the injuries prevent you from working? Did they directly and negatively impact your relationships? Did they take away your ability to walk, or your vision, etc?

All of these injuries must be proven to be a direct result of the accident. Other information that can be included in the “extent of your injuries” can be the length of time to recover and the medical costs incurred for treatment.

It is safe to say that the greater the extent of your injuries, the more valuable your case will be and this will greatly aid to your chances of winning your case, which, as we said, is vital to being approved for a pre-settlement legal funding.

The second consideration to qualify and be approved for a pre-settlement legal funding is the degree of liability of the defendant. Is the person who you are claiming is at fault for causing the accident actually the person who is responsible? This can be more complicated than it sounds. However, without going into extreme examples to illustrate how complicated it can be, let’s just state that the person you are claiming as the defendant – the one who you’re saying is at fault – needs to be directly responsible for the accident. A simple example is a car accident. A car runs a red light and t-bones another car. The driver of the car that ran the red light is the one responsible and liable for the accident, and you have witnesses to support their fault and responsibility. In this case, this is sufficient to qualify for a pre-settlement legal funding. On the other hand, for our example, trying to blame the car maker or the manufacturer of the car’s brakes would be very weak liability, and likely wouldn’t qualify for a legal funding

This is the most direct, and arguably the easiest to determine variable when deciding if you qualify for a pre-settlement legal funding. Having said that, it is also the most critical qualification – the ability of the defendant to pay for any damages awarded in a legal settlement. Quite simply, if an accident causes significant property (or other) damages, but the responsible person has no money (or insurance) to pay for the damages, then there is not much hope to collect. If there is a low chance of collecting on any award, then you would not qualify for a legal funding. The easiest example would be a car accident with an uninusred motorist.

If you get hit by a car and the person that hit you doesn’t have any insurance, then the odds of collecting any sum of money to pay for your car repairs and/or doctor bills aren’t very high and therefore, unless they were wealthy enough to pay for the damages out-of-pocket, your application for a legal funding would be denied.

These three qualifications are at the heart of any decision to fund a personal injury case or not, however there may always be an exception to the rules. At Signal, our staff can determine quickly if you do qualify and are approved for a legal funding. While most of the time we need to speak with your attorney to confirm the details, generally speaking we often have a pretty good idea during our first conversation.

If you are waiting for your lawsuit to settle but need money sooner to help with the monthly bills, give us a call. If you’re unsure if you’d qualify after reading this, give us a call anyway. We’d be happy to discuss your situation with you. The phone call is free and it is free to apply, so don’t rule yourself out without first talking to us.

Call us at 1-800-635-1167. The phone call is free, and there is no cost to apply or simply see if you would qualify. Call now.

Have more questions or want to know how it works?