RadIP Victory Strengthens Privacy Protections for Litigation Funding Arrangements

 

February 1, 2018.  RadIP obtained a significant victory on behalf of its client Lambeth Magnetic Structures (“LMS”) in the Western District of Pennsylvania, and for the protection of litigation funding information, following Judge Cathy Bissoon’s denial of Defendants Seagate and Western Digital’s motion to compel LMS’s pre-suit communications with litigation funding organizations.  In her decision—which is notably heavily redacted to reflect the protections the firm secured for its client—Judge Bissoon found all of the information sought by Seagate and Western Digital protected by the work-product privilege in anticipation of litigation.  Judge Bissoon rejected the Defendants’ arguments in finding that even if litigation funding arrangements were non-legal in nature, “the materials would nonetheless fall within work-product immunity because they were communications with Plaintiff’s agents and in anticipation of litigation.”

 

As noted by Reuters, defendants often push for disclosure of litigation funding details, but RadIP’s victory puts an arrow in the quiver for plaintiffs fighting to protect these details as privileged.