Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
With the development over the past few years of online crowd funding, websites like GoFundMe have gained in popularity at an exponential rate. Since its inception, GoFundMe claims to have raised over $1.2 billion through its website. Quite remarkable.
As a personal injury firm established in South Florida for over 38 years, Leesfield & Partners has seen first hand how a catastrophic event can transform an otherwise financially sound family into needing quick cash to pay next month’s mortgage or pay last month’s car payment that is over due.
In Florida, the Florida bar prohibits attorneys to loan money or advance cash to their clients. The only option to clients in the most dire situations was to contact a financial firm specialized in short-term loans based on lawsuits, more commonly called lawsuit loans. These loans are essentially an exchange of money for a promise of repayment + interest. While the idea of helping out people in temporary need until their case settles is a very noble one, abuse quickly became the norm. Today, these lawsuit loans are mainly operated by small entities who charge an exorbitant interest rate.
