LYNN WESTMORELAND: How Foreign Investors Profit From US Lawsuits And Drive Up Consumer Prices

Americans are desperate for relief from rising prices. The November 2025 elections made that clear, as “affordability” dominated every focus group, every poll, and every concession speech. If Republicans plan to regain voter trust, they need to address one of the most under-recognized drivers of higher costs: the exploding litigation finance industry.

Fortunately, a bill pending in Congress was created to tackle this.

Third-party litigation funding allows outside investors to bankroll lawsuits in exchange for a share of the payout. With deep-pocketed funders behind them, trial lawyers can push cases to court, reject reasonable settlements, and demand huge jury awards. The result has been a sharp rise in so-called “nuclear verdicts” — awards exceeding $10 million.

Third-party litigation funding (TPLF) has become a multibillion-dollar engine powering these types of verdicts, which have skyrocketed in the past decade.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, from 2013 through 2022, the number of nuclear verdicts over $10 million was up 28%, over $20 million was up 45%, over $50 million was up 120% and, shockingly, over $100 million or more was up 400%. And, as usual, the cost of those astronomical judgments is passed onto consumers in the form of rising prices on everything from groceries to insurance.

Take trucking, for example. An American Transportation Research Institute analysis of trucking litigation between 2013 and 2022 found that the median nuclear verdict in tractor-trailer tort cases reached $36 million in 2022—approximately 50% higher than the median nuclear verdict in 2013. That, in turn, has led to skyrocketing insurance premiums. Trucking auto liability premiums rose by 36% per mile in the past eight years, even as truck crashes declined in the past four years.