June 25, 2009

Kelly Holleran at the Madison County Record reports that attorneys Thomas Maag and Peter Maag have filed a putative class action against Whitehaven Settlement Fund, a litigation funding firm that lent money to Illinois litigants in defiance (they say) of Illinois policy against assigning litigation claims. They say the firm employed a choice-of-law clause purporting to bring the dealings under New York law, as well as a requirement that disputes be arbitrated in New York. Apparently this is not the first class action to be aimed at a litigation settlement funding firm; Popehat cites the 2005 North Carolina case of Odell v Legal Bucks LLC, which led to this mixed ruling last September by an appeals court in that state.