Companies and their counsel

Commercial litigation funding

A commercial claim is funded on its merits, its defendant and its damages. The request is the document that lets a funder judge all three quickly.

Who this is for

General counsel, company owners and the counsel who pursue affirmative commercial claims

Your job is to decide whether to pursue a claim without carrying its cost on your own balance sheet. A funder will ask for the same things in the same order. Having them ready, and checked against the record, is what separates a request that is read from one that waits.

Where most comparable matters satTailTime from filing to resolution →
Figure 1How a duration band is drawn. The shaded band is the range in which comparable commercial matters in one court reached resolution. The tail to the right is the slower matters, kept visible.Illustrative

What commercial litigation funding covers

Commercial litigation funding provides capital to pursue an affirmative commercial claim, such as a contract, fraud or business tort claim, in exchange for a share of any recovery. It can fund fees, costs or both, and it can sit with the claimant or with the law firm.

Criterica Capital prepares the request and sends it to independent funders. Each funder reviews it and decides on its own.

What the funder reads

Liability comes first: the legal theory, the evidence and the contract terms that govern the dispute. Damages follow: how the loss is calculated and what supports the calculation. Then the defendant: whether it can pay a judgment. Last, the venue and the procedural posture: how the court in question has handled comparable disputes, and how long they have taken.

The venue and posture are read from court records and private settlement data and are part of the request Criterica prepares. The first three come from the claimant and counsel and are checked for consistency against the filed papers.

How to prepare the request

Provide the pleadings or a short statement of the claim, the damages calculation, the engagement terms with counsel and a description of the defendant. If the matter is not yet filed, say so and state the court in which it would be filed.

The request states what is known and marks what is stated by the claimant and not yet checked, so the funder sees both.

How to read this

A duration band describes comparable matters in a court. It informs a funder’s view of timing and is stated beside the claim’s own facts, which the funder weighs on its own.

Questions readers ask

What is commercial litigation funding?

Capital provided to pursue an affirmative commercial claim, in exchange for a share of any recovery. It can fund fees, costs or both.

What does a funder look at in a commercial claim?

The liability theory and evidence, how damages are calculated, whether the defendant can pay a judgment, and how the venue has handled comparable disputes.

Who decides whether a claim is funded?

Independent funders each decide on their own. Criterica Capital prepares the request from court records and private settlement data and does not make the decision.

Next step

Bring one large claim, judgment or award.

It is read from the record and prepared for independent capital providers. Independent funders each decide on their own.

Submit a large claim

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