A client calls your office four months after a rear-end crash on I-4. Her shoulder still needs surgery. Her paychecks stopped in June. The insurer just offered $9,000 on a claim with $14,000 in medical bills. She wants to take it so she can pay rent.
You know the case is worth more. She knows her landlord won’t wait.
Florida personal injury lawyers field calls like that every week. Your answer shapes the case value, the client relationship, and your own exposure under the Florida Bar rules.
What Pre-Settlement Funding Does for a Florida Client
Pre-settlement funding gives a plaintiff a cash advance against a pending claim. The advance is non-recourse. The client repays it only from a settlement or verdict. A lost case means the client owes the funder nothing.
The funder works through your office. Funders like Tribeca, a fast pre-settlement loan provider, review the crash report, medical records, policy limits, and your honest read on liability before they approve an amount. Your firm then signs an acknowledgment to repay the funder from settlement proceeds before the client receives their share.
Handled well, funding protects your case value. A client who can cover rent can wait out a slow adjuster. She also has less reason to fire you over a long negotiation.
Firms that dodge funding questions lose clients to whichever funder pops up first on a late-night search. Firms that keep two or three vetted options ready keep control of the file.
Why Florida Clients Run Short on Cash Sooner Since HB 837
Governor DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 837 on March 24, 2023. The law rewired Florida negligence practice in two ways that squeeze injured clients.
The Two-Year Clock
HB 837 cut the statute of limitations for general negligence from four years to two years under Fla. Stat. § 95.11. The shorter window covers claims that accrued after March 24, 2023.
A two-year clock leaves your file less room to breathe. A carrier that senses a broke plaintiff has every reason to stall. Each month of delay costs the insurer almost nothing. The same month costs your client a rent payment.
The 51% Bar
Florida moved from pure to modified comparative negligence under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6). A plaintiff found more than 50% at fault now recovers nothing. Medical negligence cases are the one carve-out.
The rule turns every disputed liability case into a higher-stakes bet. A client facing eviction will grab a lowball number just to lock in something.
Where Florida Bar Rule 4-1.8(e) Draws the Line
Your first instinct may be to help the client directly. Florida Bar Rule 4-1.8(e) blocks most of that.
You can advance court costs and litigation expenses. Living costs like rent, a car note, or groceries fall outside what you can pay. The rule has a sound purpose. A lawyer who bankrolls a client’s life gains a quiet grip on settlement decisions. The lawyer also picks up a personal stake in the outcome beyond the contingency fee.
The client still needs cash. Your firm still can’t hand it over. A third-party funder fills that role without tying your hands.
What to Check Before Your Client Signs
You aren’t the borrower. You still read the contract, because the payoff comes out of a settlement you negotiated.
Start with the pricing method. Simple interest and monthly compounding produce very different payoffs on the same advance. Take a $5,000 advance at an illustrative 3% a month over an 18-month case. Simple interest adds $2,700, for a payoff of $7,700. Monthly compounding pushes the payoff to about $8,512. That $812 difference comes straight out of your client’s net recovery.
A few other terms deserve a hard look.
- Fee caps. The best contracts stop the charges at a set date or cap the total at a fixed multiple of the advance.
- Case control. The funder should get zero say over strategy, experts, or when to settle.
- Hidden charges. Application, processing, and “delivery” fees can add hundreds of dollars before the first month of interest.
- The advance amount matters too. Smaller is safer. Your client should borrow enough to stay afloat and nothing more.
Florida Still Has No Funding Statute
Florida has no statute aimed at litigation financing. Lawmakers keep trying to change that.
Senate Bill (SB) 1396, the Litigation Investment Safeguards and Transparency Act, would have barred funders from taking a bigger share of proceeds than the plaintiffs collectively recover. The bill also required disclosure of funding agreements with foreign investors. However, the bill did not push through. Its House companion, HB 1157, did not push through in subcommittee as well.
Expect another version in the 2027 session. For now, your firm can set its own guardrails. A written cap on what you’ll accept from a funder protects clients today. The same policy also positions you well if Tallahassee eventually passes a rule regarding this type of funding.
For a wider view of funding structures in commercial and consumer cases, read this overview of litigation funding by Crowell & Moring lawyers.
Build a Funding Policy Into Your Intake
Most firms handle funding calls on the fly. A paralegal gets the question, guesses, and passes the client a name. You can do better with very little effort.
Pick one person on staff to own funding questions. Give clients a one-page handout that explains non-recourse advances, the pricing math above, and the payoff lien. Then review every funding contract before the client signs, including the ones the client found on their own.
The Firms That Hold Their Clients After Tort Reform
HB 837 tilted bargaining power toward defendants. Carriers now have a shorter clock and a harsher fault rule working in their favor. Client cash flow has quietly become part of case strategy in Florida.
The firms that treat it that way will settle fewer cases too early. They’ll also keep the clients who would otherwise walk out the door with a $9,000 check and a surgery they can’t afford.
