The United States judicial system is in the midst of great and fundamental change with regard to the funding of litigation. Historically, parties financed litigation out of their own literal or figurative pockets or, perhaps with the assistance of some sort of contingent fee representation....

The United States legal system has a new player: the alternative litigation finance (ALF) entity. Funding of litigation by an entity that is not a party to the litigation has long existed in the United States in the form of attorney funding through contingent fees and insurer funding through the...

One might expect a court to look very skeptically when a party to a personal injury release asks a court to set aside the release. But many courts have reacted atypically when injured parties who have settled their claims have sought to have those releases set aside on the basis of a lack of...

The basic ethics rules regarding fees are simple. The fee must be reasonable. The rules specify process and disclosure requirements to ensure that the client understands the fee. In the process of collecting the fee, the attorney always must be mindful of the general rule which states that a...

Lawyers rely on all sorts of assistance in practicing law. Law offices teem with paralegals, secretarial assistants, runners, investigators, student law clerks and such. Two questions often arise regarding these nonlawyer employees. First, for purposes of ethics, to what extent is the lawyer...