A previous post in this blog reported that the Georgia Court of Appeals decided in Cherokee Funding, LLC v. Ruth, Case No. A17A0132 (decided June 27, 2017), that a litigation funding agreement was not subject to the Georgia Industrial Loan Act or the Payday Lending Act. That decision removed a potential barrier to litigation funding.  It has become a more common means for plaintiffs (and sometimes defendants) to finance the costs of litigation.

Today, the Georgia Supreme Court granted certiorari in that case and posed to the parties the question: “Are the litigation funding agreements at issue in this case subject to either the Payday Lending Act, O.C.G.A. § 16-17-1 et. seq., or the Georgia Industrial Loan Act, O.C.G.A. § 7-3-1 et. seq.?”

The case will be argued in May and will be decided in the fall. The decision, in this case, will certainly have consequences for the future of litigation funding in Georgia.

For more information on this topic, contact your Appellate counsel at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.