The American Legal Finance Association (ALFA) objects on behalf of its 30 members to the Case Management Order No. 61 issued by U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers on August 29, 2023 in the 3M Combat Arms Earplug Product Litigation. The Order prohibits claimants in the Litigation from obtaining consumer legal funding without court approval and does not cite any applicable factual basis or legal precedent for such an order. The Order was issued without providing any due process to ALFA members whose funding contracts are in demand by claimants.
The Minnesota Supreme Court took a significant step to ensuring equal access to justice with their decision in Maslowski vs. Prospect Funding Partners LLC. yesterday, overturning the trial court and Court of Appeals holding and ruling unanimously that Consumer Litigation Funding is not subject to usury law as there is no absolute requirement to repay. In their decision, reversing the trial court and Court of Appeals, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the repurchase rate in Prospect’s agreement was not subject to Minnesota’s usury statute. The American Legal Finance Association (ALFA) filed the only amicus curiae brief in this case on behalf of the interest of their members.
June 11, 2010 – Last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed consumer litigation funding in Minnesota, finding that champerty, the English common law doctrine prohibiting disinterested third parties from providing money to plaintiffs in exchange for an interest in their case no longer applies.
