Huge Hearing Could Decide The Fate Of Litigation Finance

The industry may be facing an existential crisis.

onDecember 9, 2016 at 4:32 PMDecember 12, 2016 at 4:39 PM

The long arm of American courts has been stretched to unprecedented lengths to throttle us.

— Attorney Martin Kenney, describing an upcoming December 14 hearing before Judge Paul Diamond that could have massive repercussions for the world of litigation finance. The case involves Liberia’s biggest importer, Lebanese-owned AJA, against Cigna over damages incurred in Liberia’s civil war. Jurisdictional misadventures over the last 20 years aside, Judge Diamond is threatening to hold the investors themselves, ~~including Kenny~~ (UPDATE: Kenny did not have an interest in this litigation — he acted only as a lawyer), liable for damages above (UPDATE: for contempt… not for having invested in the first place) and beyond their investment in the case if they don’t show up to court — which they are unlikely to do in order to preserve their jurisdictional arguments.

(Imagine a world where Peter Thiel actually stood to lose for some of his anti-Gawker attacks. At the same time, imagine a world where the helpless can’t challenge the powerful because no one will stake them the money needed to get through the courthouse door. This could have big fallout.)