Litigation finance contracts are not standardized the way a residential mortgage or a car loan is. Terms vary widely across funders, claim types, and jurisdictions, and most claimants encounter their first funding agreement with no real benchmark for what is customary versus unusual. In 2014, Maya Steinitz and Abigail C. Field tried to close that gap directly, publishing "A Model Litigation Finance Contract" in the Iowa Law Review after developing it through an unusual open research process at litigationfinancecontract.com, where each draft provision was posted for public comment and revised in response before the final version went to print.
The model contract is organized around a handful of provision categories worth knowing before you read a real one. The funding mechanics set out the amount committed, whether it is released in a single payment or in tranches tied to case milestones, and the return waterfall, typically a return of capital plus the greater of a fixed multiple or a percentage of recovery, capped in some agreements and uncapped in others. The control provisions are usually the most heavily negotiated: well-drafted agreements reserve litigation strategy, settlement authority, and privileged communications to the claimant and counsel, while giving the funder information rights, case updates, and often a consultation right on major decisions, short of an actual veto. Termination and default provisions specify what happens if the claimant settles without consent, if the case is voluntarily dismissed, or if the funder stops advancing capital partway through, questions that matter far more in practice than they seem to at signing. Confidentiality and assignment provisions govern who else may see the agreement and whether the funder's interest can be sold or syndicated to another party without the claimant's consent.
None of this substitutes for independent counsel reviewing your specific agreement before you sign it. But knowing the standard shape of a funding contract in advance is the difference between negotiating from a position of information and negotiating blind. The Institute's Academy includes a module that walks through the model contract provision by provision for claimants approaching a real agreement for the first time.