On January 19, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on “third-party litigation financing” in response to a Congressional request first submitted by Representative Andy Barr (R-Kentucky). Given the GAO’s mission—”to provide Congress with fact-based, nonpartisan information that can help improve federal government performance and ensure accountability for the benefit of the American people”—the report provides an important governmental view on legal finance, and many market participants contributed perspective and expertise to its analysis of the industry.
The GAO report reflects positively on the commercial legal finance industry and emphasizes several of the advantages it offers to the U.S. legal sector and economy. As an objective and non-partisan analysis of the legal finance industry, the GAO report carries weight, and thus it is meaningful that its findings emphasize so many of the positive benefits provided by legal finance to law and to business.
