Dividend Solar Finance, LLC, and Fifth Third Bank

This docket consolidates proposed class actions alleging that homeowners were induced into financing residential solar system purchases through deceptive sales tactics used by solar installers partnered with a solar-financing company and a bank lender, including allegedly concealed "platform fees" embedded in loan principal, misrepresentations about the availability of tax credits, and overstated projections of energy-cost savings. Centralized in the District of Minnesota in 2024, the docket carries 42 pending actions, and a 2025 ruling allowed fraud and predatory-lending claims against both the solar-financing company and the bank to proceed past the motion-to-dismiss stage.

For a funder, this is a consumer lending and fraud docket with a genuinely favorable early procedural signal: surviving a motion to dismiss on both fraud and predatory-lending theories against an institutional bank defendant meaningfully de-risks the litigation relative to where it stood at filing, and the alleged undisclosed-fee structure creates a comparatively quantifiable damages theory tied to loan principal and disclosed versus actual financing terms.

That combination supports firm-level litigation cost financing for plaintiffs' counsel pursuing class certification and merits discovery against the bank and financing-company defendants, with underwriting benefiting from the survived motion-to-dismiss ruling as an early risk signal. Criterica Capital's commercial litigation finance line applies to this consumer lending-fraud category, and law-firm capital may also be relevant for firms building out a broader practice around solar-financing consumer claims given the sector's growth. A structure and litigation brief on the current claim population and procedural posture is also available.

Pre-settlement funding is a non-recourse purchase of a portion of the proceeds of a pending legal claim — not a loan. If the case does not result in a recovery, nothing is owed. Rates, fees, and repayment terms are disclosed in full in the funding agreement, which the applicant’s attorney reviews before signing. Availability and terms vary by state.