Law firm leadership
Legal capital for law firms
A contingency fee firm carries its cases at its own cost until they resolve. Legal capital moves that cost onto the docket, and the docket is what the funder reads.
Who this is for
Managing partners, firm administrators and finance leads at plaintiff practices
Your job is to keep a docket funded through years of case costs, payroll and growth without selling the firm. The first question is what a funder will want to see. The answer is a docket described the same way a funder would describe it.
- Car accident12 to 24 mo
- Truck accident18 to 36 mo
- Wrongful death18 to 36 mo
- Medical malpractice24 to 48 mo
- Workers compensation12 to 36 mo
- Mass torts36 to 84 mo
What legal capital for a law firm is
Legal capital for a law firm is financing secured on or sized against the firm’s cases: a working capital line against a docket, portfolio funding against a defined group of cases, or case-cost funding for a particular matter. The firm keeps its practice; the funder is repaid from case proceeds.
Criterica Capital prepares the firm’s request from court records and private settlement data and sends it to independent funders. Each funder decides on its own.
What the funder reads in a docket
The funder reads the mix of case types, because a docket of car accident claims resolves on a different clock from one of medical malpractice or mass tort. It reads the stage of each case, the courts in which they sit, the firm’s own history of resolving similar cases and the concentration in any one case or defendant.
The court record supplies the stage, the venue and the pace of comparable cases. The firm supplies the fee agreements and its own history, which are checked against the filed papers.
How to prepare the firm request
Provide a docket schedule by case type, stage and court, the fee structure on each matter, the amount sought and what it will fund. Say which cases, if any, are already pledged elsewhere. A clean schedule is the single most useful document.
How to read this
The bands describe how each case type has commonly resolved. A firm’s own cases sit within or beyond them depending on court and facts, and the funder weighs the firm’s record on its own.
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Questions readers ask
What is legal capital for a law firm?
Financing against a firm’s cases: a working capital line against a docket, portfolio funding against a defined group of cases, or case-cost funding for a matter. It is repaid from case proceeds.
What does a funder read in a firm request?
The mix of case types, the stage and court of each case, the firm’s history resolving similar cases, and the concentration in any single case or defendant.
What is the most useful document to prepare?
A docket schedule by case type, stage and court, with the fee structure on each matter and the amount sought.
Next step
Put your docket in front of the right funders.
Send a firm request. It is priced from court records and private settlement data and prepared for independent funders. Independent funders each decide on their own.
Start a firm requestRelated reading
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