Litigation Funding Dispute Gets Costly.

• Date: 08 February 2021
• Author: Zalma, Barry

Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award. Over the last 51 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created the following library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.

The fight between prominent plaintiffs' attorney Thomas Girardi and a litigation funder that claims he and his firm haven't paid back a $15 million loan has been routed to arbitration. However, a significant, potentially public fight remains over whether Mill Valley-based funder Law Finance Group LLC will be able to go after Girardi's personal assets if it wins in arbitration.

Law Finance Group sued Girardi and his firm, Girardi Keese, in Los Angeles Superior Court in January. The funder claims that Girardi and the firm refused to hand over recovered fees from cases the parties allegedly agreed would repay the loans.

Girardi asked last month for the dispute to be routed to arbitration, a move that Law Finance Group did not oppose. Los Angeles Superior Judge Gregory Alarcon granted Girardi's motion to compel arbitration in the case in...