Insurance companies don’t need to beat your case. They just need to outlast your client.
That’s the variable that matters most in settlement negotiations. And most PI firms hand it to the carrier without realizing it.
The Leverage Equation
The most powerful thing in litigation isn’t evidence. It’s time. Every case is a negotiation over who controls it. The carrier’s entire strategy is built around one bet: that the plaintiff will need money before the case reaches full value.
They delay discovery. They lowball early. They let months pass between offers. The defense lawyers are just executing the playbook. The insurance company is calling the shots.
This isn’t a theory. In the 1990s, McKinsey taught insurers to treat claims as a “zero-sum game” and turn their claims departments into profit centers. The property and casualty industry made $169 billion in profit in 2024 — a record.
A plaintiff with no financial runway will take the lowball offer. Carriers know this. Adjusters know this. That’s why they wait.
What the Carrier Sees
When your client is financially stable, everything changes at the negotiating table.
They can’t wait you out. The lowball offer gets rejected without hesitation. Discovery delays don’t create panic. Your client isn’t calling every week asking when this will be over.
You can litigate. You can posture for trial. You can walk away from a bad offer knowing your client won’t cave.
That’s leverage.
When your client is drowning (behind on rent, borrowing from family, watching medical bills pile up) the carrier has all of it. They don’t need to offer fair value. They just need to outlast your client’s ability to say no.
How to Buy Time the Right Way
Here’s where most firms get stuck.
They know financial pressure hurts case outcomes. But they’ve seen what traditional funding does: rates that compound monthly, balances that balloon, clients who end up owing 3x, 4x, 5x what they received.
That’s funding as a tax. Something that extracts value from the case instead of protecting it. The cure looked worse than the disease. So they avoid it entirely.
Which means their clients stay financially vulnerable. Which means the defense keeps the leverage.
The answer isn’t to avoid funding. It’s to use funding that works as a tool instead of a tax.
When the rate is simple instead of compound, when there’s a hard cap on what the client will owe, when the payoff is predictable from day one, funding gives your client time without creating a new problem.
A funded client with stable, predictable terms is a client who can wait. A client who can wait is a client the carrier can’t squeeze.
The Math on a Real Case
A client needs $5,000 to stay afloat during litigation. She gets funded through a traditional funder at 3% monthly compound.
18 months later, the case settles for $150,000. Her funding payoff: $19,000. After attorney fees and medical liens, she walks with $43,000.
Same client, same case, same $5,000 advance. But this time at 27.8% simple with a 2x cap.
Her payoff: $7,500. She walks with $54,500.
That’s $12,000 more in her pocket. Same case. Same settlement. Different funding.
Now multiply that across your caseload.
The Tactical Shift
Think about your current caseload.
How many clients are under financial stress right now? How many have asked about settling early? How many cases are you holding together with duct tape because the client can’t afford to wait for full value?
Now imagine those same cases with the financial pressure removed.
The discovery dispute that’s dragging on? Your client doesn’t care. They’re not bleeding. The mediator suggesting your client “be realistic”? You can walk. The adjuster who hasn’t moved off their number in three months? Let them wait.
Time stops working against you. It starts working for you.
A funded plaintiff is a patient plaintiff. A patient plaintiff is a dangerous plaintiff. Time is power.
What This Looks Like in Practice
ClaimAngel offers one rate for every plaintiff: 27.8% simple, capped at 2x over 46 months. No compounding. No hidden fees. The client knows exactly what they’ll owe from the day they sign.
That predictability changes behavior. Theirs and the carrier’s.
Your client stops asking when this will be over. The adjuster stops assuming you’ll fold. The case proceeds on the merits instead of on who runs out of money first.
We’ve facilitated over $100M across 20,000+ fundings at this rate. The math works. The leverage works.
The Bottom Line
Insurance companies have always understood that financial pressure wins cases. They’re not hiding it. It’s the strategy.
The question is simple: are you going to keep playing their game, or are you going to take their best weapon off the table?
Every desperate plaintiff is a walk in the park for the carrier. Every patient plaintiff is a problem.
Make more problems.
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