Third-Party Litigation Funding professional interest in justice or the personal circumstances of the plaintiff.
Hidden Influence Prolongs Litigation
By enabling broader sustained legal action, TPLF may amplify systematic challenges in how insurers model risk factors.
When backed by TPLF’ s deep pockets, plaintiffs’ lawyers are less prone to agree to reasonable settlements. They’ re more likely to hold out, hoping that jurors will award the huge payday of a nuclear verdict.
As that happens more often, insurers must raise their premiums and deductibles to cover expected expenses and losses. In the end, both the insurance company and its clients— crane owners— suffer.
According to a U. S. General Accounting Office 2024 report,“ Third party funders complicate settlement negotiations, contributing to longer settlement times and longer settlement negotiations measurably increase the cost to settle.”
In this regard alone, TPLF is fundamentally changing the civil justice system.
This article strongly advocates that courts and legislators require disclosure of litigation financing agreements and adopt reforms to negate plaintiff counsel tactics to lengthen litigation from standard timelines.
TPLF is fundamentally reshaping every aspect of the litigation process— which cases get brought, how long they are pursued and when they are settled.
And all of this is happening without transparency.
That means the judiciary is being quietly transformed.
• What started as $ 5 million to $ 10 million
Global Litigation Funding Investment Market 2025-2034( By Enterprise Size)
Large
SMEs
www. custommarketinsights. com
CustomMarketInsights. com predicts that global litigation funding will strongly affect both small( SME) and large( Large) businesses between now and 2034.
Global Litigation Funding Investment Market 2025-2034( By Type)
Commercial Litigation Bankruptcy Claim International Litigation Others
2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034
Experts expect global litigation funding to keep rising for at least the next nine years.
investments in a single commercial case has grown into litigation funding loans exceeding $ 100 million to law firms for their entire caseloads.
• According to Bloomberg Law Group,“ It’ s a built-in diversified portfolio that hedges risk.”
• In the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, Professor Donald Cochran noted that“ TPLF turns the American justice system into a financial playground by transforming lawsuits into investment vehicles.”
• Presently, in most states, TPLF arrangements are rarely disclosed— and, therefore, remain largely hidden from scrutiny. Parties may seek disclosure of litigation funding arrangements through discovery, but opponents routinely object based on relevance or privilege. It appears that as of now litigation funding can only be disclosed to jurors if there is actual evidence and definitive reason the funding arrangement is relevant to the underlying facts, claims and defenses of the case.
Crane Industry Stakeholders Must Band Together
To help keep TPLF arrangements and attorney advertising from totally reshaping the legal landscape, crane and heavy-haul companies, their insurers and other industry stakeholders must band together to balance access to justice by preserving the integrity of the legal system.
Without stronger advocacy by industry trade groups, the impact of tort advertising and TPLF will likely put more strain on insurers, possibly erode public trust in our civil justice system and certainly cost crane owners more.
If we can form a crane industry coalition to encourage best safety practices and to require that jurors see the often-hidden influence of Dark Money, we can create a fighting chance to both reduce accidents and to shine a light on legal system abuse by TPLF.
Call for Transparency
Private-equity-type investors are pouring billions of dollars into large-scale TPLF in an effort to turn the courts into investment opportunities.
Crane owners and related companies can create our own collective effort to counter that despicable practice.
We can create an industry-wide coalition calling for full disclosure of the billions of dollars that TPLF is investing.
Conclusion
According to the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers( CIAB),“ TPLF is contributing significantly to reduced availability and increased pricing in key liability insurance lines.”
The CIAB’ s first-quarter Commercial Property / Casualty Market Report for 2025 notes that the TPLF practice is affecting claims trends and insurer underwriting behavior across umbrella, automobile and general liability insurance.“ When coverage is available, premium costs have risen measurably,” it said.
In Crane Hot Line’ s November edition, the third article in this series will focus on practical solutions to TPLF through alternative risk financing methods and industry safety alliance initiatives.
Kevin Cunningham has 27 years of experience in crane risk management and is president of Acies Crane Underwriters. He can be reached at kevin. cunningham @ aciesmgu. com.
www. cranehotline. com • October 2025 37