Topic:
Lawsuit lending and attorney fees
(Thapedi, D-Chicago) creates a new section in the Consumer Installment Loan Act to apply to “lawsuit lending” in which a lawsuit lender loans money to a party to a civil action. It does four things. (1) Requires the court to award to the prevailing party all of its costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees to be assessed against the losing party. (2) Requires the lawsuit lender to post with the clerk of the court a bond in the face amount of 25% of the amount of damages claimed by any such party. (3) Makes all documents that the lawsuit lender obtained from the party to be produced to the opposing party without a discovery request. (4) Amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act to cover lawsuit lenders for repeated violations and advertisements. Just introduced and referred to the House Rules Committee for assignment to a substantive committee.