Litigation Expense Financing: Funding Experts, Discovery, and Trial Costs

How hard-cost financing differs from working capital and why it matters for high-cost cases.

Litigation expense financing covers the hard costs of prosecuting a case: expert witness fees, electronic discovery, depositions, trial graphics, and the other out-of-pocket expenditures that a complex matter demands. These costs are distinct from a firm's general overhead and can run into the millions for a single high-stakes case. Financing them specifically, rather than from general working capital, lets a firm pursue cost-intensive litigation it might otherwise have to decline or under-resource.

Expert witnesses are often the largest single category. In patent, antitrust, securities, and complex commercial cases, the outcome can turn on competing expert testimony, and credible experts command substantial fees for analysis, reports, depositions, and trial testimony. Electronic discovery is another major cost center, as the collection, processing, and review of large volumes of digital evidence requires specialized vendors and significant spend. Expense financing ensures these investments are not constrained by short-term cash availability.

Hard-cost financing differs from working capital in its tie to specific cases. Because the capital funds identifiable case expenses, it is typically structured as non-recourse against the recovery of the matter or matters it supports: if the case fails, the funder absorbs the expense loss. This aligns the funder's interest with the outcome and frees the firm and its clients from carrying the cost risk of expensive litigation that may not succeed.

For firms, expense financing has strategic value beyond cash flow. It allows a firm to fully resource a strong case, retaining the best experts and conducting thorough discovery, without the temptation to economize in ways that weaken the matter. A well-resourced case is more likely to achieve its full recovery potential, which benefits the client, the firm, and the funder alike. The discipline of external underwriting also provides an independent check on whether the projected costs are justified by the expected recovery.

Criterica Capital finances litigation expenses on a non-recourse basis for qualifying matters, with underwriting informed by outcome models trained on 106M+ court records. Because our evaluation reflects how comparable cases resolved, firms receive expense capital sized to the realistic economics of the matter. Firms with high-cost cases can contact our institutional team to discuss expense financing.

Discuss your matter with our institutional team.