Have You Been Wondering Whether a Lawsuit Loan is Right For You? If So, Where Do You Begin? Part 1

Have you found yourself in the throes of a lawsuit and wondering if you're going to be able to survive financially? This is, unfortunately, a very common occurrence. It is a frightening thing to have been injured due to someone else's negligence and, through no fault of your own, you now find yourself unable to pursue a lawsuit against that individual due to limited finances. Although little-known, a lawsuit loan is often readily available for individuals who have sustained such injuries.

This article has been written to help individuals in precarious financial positions, contemplating whether they can afford to pursue litigation as a result of injuries sustained. Hopefully, this article will greatly assist such individuals in navigating the lawsuit-loan process. Applicants are often relieved to learn that, once the documentation is received, notification of either approval or denial is often received within 24 to 72 hours.

The first step that you need to take once you've applied for a lawsuit loan is to contact your attorney. Notify your attorney of your desire to obtain financial-assistance to proceed with your litigation.

Applicants should be aware of the fact that litigation-funding experts will be required to contact your attorney to obtain documentation regarding your pending-lawsuit. If you have already notified your attorney of your desire to obtain such funding and of the need for the funding-expert to contact your attorney to discuss this process, this will greatly expedite receipt of required-documentation. This will also give you an opportunity to complete requisite documentation for the attorney prior to release of the requested information.

Step two in the process is to identify reputable litigation-funding experts. The simplest way to do this is to rely on major search engines.

There is no close-second-place winner to Google. Google is certainly the most respected of the search engines. Therefore, when beginning your research, it is preferable for you to start there. You may begin your search simply by entering relevant search terms such as "settlement loan," "settlement loans," "lawsuit loan," etc.

Once you've performed a search of the relevant terms, identify a few of the websites that you would like to contact and spend a little bit of time reviewing the information contained on each of those sites.

Please note that you significantly decrease the likelihood of obtaining the lawsuit loan you seek when you submit multiple-applications. Although it may seem like a good idea at the time, there is a relatively limited number of funding-entities to which applications are submitted. The submission of multiple applications is a red-flag to the lenders due to the fact that time and effort expended in researching the merits of the lawsuit will be a waste of time due to the fact that other lending-institutions are also looking at this application.

Step three is to assess the lawsuit loan expert's reputation. Much information will be gained upon a careful review of the response received once an application is submitted. A timely-response from the litigation-funding entity suggests both experience in the process and an attention-to-detail that is required to obtain the funding you seek as quickly as possible. A delayed-response to the submission of your application suggests that the applicant is working with inexperienced individuals who are unlikely to be able to obtain the funding they seek.

The fourth step that the applicant must take is to thoroughly discuss inherent-risks of the case with both the attorney and the litigation-funding expert. Although most applicants are curious to know what the interest rates are that will be charged for the lawsuit loan obtained, there are no interest rates with such funding. The fees that are charged are contingent on the inherent-risk in any particular lawsuit. The greater the risk, the higher the fee!

A Progressive Governor and His Landmark Lawsuit

Voters in Georgia, and those of thirty-six other states this year, will elect or re-elect a governor. Article V of the 1983 Georgia Constitution states he shall assume "...the executive powers of the state." How and to what ends he exercises those 'powers' can make a difference.

In a recent speech, Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi affirmed this political truth when he declared, "Governors matter." A case in point is the administration of Georgia Governor Ellis Gibbs Arnall, 1943-47. As one of the most effective in modern history and a polestar of excellence in government, it had a positive impact on the state. On today's stage of turmoil, doubt, and distrust, this Governor's forward-looking politics merit reconsideration.

He grew up in Newnan, the son of prominent Georgia citizens. After graduating from the University of Georgia law school in 1931, he plunged into politics and rose rapidly. In 1932, he won election to the Georgia House. Six years later and youngest in the country, he was serving as Attorney General. Bright, urbane, perceptive, widely read, ambitious, Arnall knew an issue when he saw one. Governor Eugene Talmadge (seeking re-election) served up one cooked to order.

Talmadge, "The Wild Man from Sugar Creek," defender of the status quo, adversary of the New Deal, disciple of rural interests, was a firebrand segregationist. Convinced integration sentiment was infiltrating the university system, he moved against professors and administrators at the University of Georgia and Georgia Teachers College, firing some and threatening others.

His mischief misfired. The University lost its accreditation. As their diplomas became worthless, students demonstrated en masse and burned the Governor in effigy at the state capitol. Across Georgia the vox populi echoed the protest.

Arnall denounced Talmadge as a dictator and demagogue. He made academic freedom his central issue in the 1942 gubernatorial election, handily defeating Talmadge to become the 69th Governor. On January 12, 1943, he took the oath of office as the youngest governor in America, age 35.

With decency and dignity, Arnall promptly obliterated Talmadge's "Tobacco Road" image, one many believed stained and degraded Georgia. That was the beginning. Other measures followed one after the other.

The Governor launched a ten-point reform program, and the legislature supported it. With university accreditation restored forthwith, Georgia became first in the nation to lower the voting age to 18. Her sons were fighting World War II battles all over the globe. "If they're old enough to fight, they're old enough to vote," Arnall declared. The citizenry agreed. He repealed the onerous poll tax that expanded the electorate by an estimated 500,000. He established a civil service system that protected state employees from arbitrary political firings. Iron shackles were banished from the penal chain gang system; one Zell Miller observed, "Had given the state a national black eye for years."

Utilizing the commission system rather than calling a convention, the Arnall administration adopted a new constitution, the first since 1877. In a break with precedent, its provisions ascribed independence to the Boards of Regents and Pardons and Paroles. Meanwhile, the administration discharged the $36 million state debt without raising taxes.

The Governor placed on his agenda another long-standing plea for relief. For years shippers, manufacturers, and business people complained that discriminatory freight rates stunted growth and business expansion, among smaller enterprises in particular. Freight rates on southern rail lines averaged thirty-nine per cent higher on manufactured goods than rates in the North. In Washington, D.C., a languid Interstate Commerce Commission continued its mull of the rate question, pending in one form or another since 1936.

Unfair rates affected other southern states, but their governors also skirted the issue. Arnall abandoned patience. He and Attorney General T. Grady Head, in brilliant fashion, drafted a bill of complaint and filed it directly in the U.S.Supreme Court. Styled, State of Georgia vs. The Pennsylvania Railroad, it named as party defendants nineteen additional northern lines. Georgia sought to enjoin them from conspiring to fix unfair freight rates in violation of the anti-trust laws.

Arnall himself argued the case in the Supreme Court, the first sitting governor to do so. On March 26, 1945, five of the nine Justices found in his favor. Among other things, the Court held Georgia averred legitimate grounds for legal remedy. A segment from the majority opinion reads:

Discriminatory rates are but one form of trade barriers. They may cause blight no less serious than the spread of noxious gas... They may affect the prosperity and welfare of a State... They may... impede old industries and prevent the establishment of new ones. They may put [a State] at a decided disadvantage in competitive markets.

The lawsuit aroused the lethargic ICC. In a matter of weeks, it issued a three hundred-page opinion that mainly agreed with the allegations of unfairness. Over time, rates were duly adjusted to assure parity and equity. As predicted, in Georgia and throughout the region the regulations contributed to business growth and industrialization.

The everlasting question facing any governor is the one (as Edmund Burke expressed it) of knowing "...what the state ought to take upon itself to direct by public wisdom, and what it ought to leave with as little interference as possible, to individual discretion." Ellis Arnall understood Burke's maxim. He also knew nobility of cause is admirable and promises can brighten the heart, but for the electorate the only effective measuring stick is constructive action-in those matters the state 'ought to take upon itself.'

April 29, 2010