Should someone who doesn’t like you be able to fund lawsuits against you? What about a business competitor? Or just an investor who hopes to make money from a judgment or settlement?

This is called third-party litigation funding, or TPLF, and it makes it easier to use the civil justice system as a tool for vendettas or just a way to make a buck. Right now, there is no transparency of such unusual funding arrangements.

Thankfully, the Oklahoma House of Representatives and Senate are considering legislation (HB 2619 and SB 1065) to require transparency when outside investors pay for lawsuits. This is the first step to understanding how widespread this practice is and what might be done to rein it in.

As OCPA has previously written:

What happens in a courtroom impacts more than the entities directly involved in a case because the repercussions of court decisions reach across the state. And bad judicial opinions can ultimately reduce business growth and job creation, according to one national expert on judicial activism.

Even if you never get sued, you pay the costs of civil justice abuses in higher prices for goods and services. Businesses that lose lawsuits are likely to charge higher prices—and every other business that sees the risk, or must pay more for insurance, is likely to follow.

Other important tort-reform measures are pending in the Legislature. The cost statewide of excessive tort litigation is estimated at more than $3.7 billion and is likely to prevent the creation of 32,300 jobs. Reducing the harm done to our state’s economy by out-of-control lawsuits means getting a handle on third-party litigation funding. The Legislature needs to act quickly on these measures to protect Oklahoma’s economic growth and to prevent the abuse of our court system.