Indiana Consumers Lose, Large Insurance Companies Win as Key House Committee attempts to Regulate Consumer Legal Funding out of Existence

Indiana Consumers Lose, Large Insurance Companies Win as Key House Committee attempts to Regulate Consumer Legal Funding out of Existence

Indianapolis, Indiana — A leading organization representing the consumer legal funding industry today said legislation approved Wednesday by the House Insurance Committee will handcuff the consumer legal funding industry through a series of anti-free-market price controls, killing jobs and depriving Indiana residents of a product that has served thousands without incident. 

Consumer legal funding helps consumers, who both have a pending legal claim and are represented by an attorney, by providing them much needed financial assistance to help them make ends meet while they wait for a fair settlement to be reached in their case.

“Today’s news out of Indiana is very troubling for consumers in Indiana,” said Eric Schuller, Director of Government Affairs for Oasis Legal Finance, one of the industry’s leading companies.  “This legislation places profit protection for large insurance corporations over consumer protection for Indiana citizens.”

Schuller noted that House Bill 1205, authored by Insurance Committee Chairman Matt Lehman, is a devastating blow to the thousands of citizens across Indiana who rely upon the services of consumer legal funding.  Unlike laws passed in states like, Nebraska, Maine and Ohio that protect the consumer and recognize consumer legal funding as an important financial product, HB 1205 begins the process of ending consumer legal funding in Indiana and increasing the disproportionate power the insurance industry has over injured consumers.     

“We stand ready to work with legislators to develop common-sense legislation that protects all of Indiana’s consumers.  However, a bill written by large insurance conglomerates does not accomplish those goals,” concluded Schuller.

Consumer legal funding is an industry that prides itself on helping the everyday consumer with financial funding needs during a litigation claim.  Typical legal claims involve those injured in an auto accident.  These needs usually arise when a consumer has unexpectedly been in an automobile accident that leaves them out of work, with limited financial resources to pay bills or put food on the table, all while awaiting their legal claim to be heard.   

About ARC Legal Funding

The Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding (ARC) represents its Members to ensure the proper regulation of the legal funding industry in the United States. ARC aims to accomplish this mission by advocating at the state level for rules containing appropriate pricing and a high degree of consumer protection—including adequate licensing and disclosure requirements, and suitable limitations on fees—and at the federal level by working with policymakers to help ensure the alignment of federal and state regulatory efforts affecting the consumer legal funding industry.  www.arclegalfunding.org 

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