When an accident upends a life, it’s the insurers who help people get back on their feet. It’s our job to be there for folks on their worst days and to keep things affordable otherwise. But lately, trouble has crept into that process — lawsuit funding companies driving up costs for their own benefit.

You may have seen it: slick ads promising “cash now” while your personal injury lawsuit winds through court. For some, it sounds like a lifeline. Only, people don’t realize that for every month the case drags on, the interest ticks up. The financiers aren’t incentivized to settle quickly — it's just the opposite. If these funding companies prolong the resolution process, it means higher legal costs, increased billable hours and additional court fees for everyone else, but for them it squeezes more profit from the plaintiff’s suit. When the litigation finally does settle, the folks who fronted the money take the lion’s share.

It’s called third-party litigation funding — a scheme that has........

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