motivated and now very-wellfunded plaintiff lawyers are winning outrageously high settlements( nuclear verdicts) more often, so claim costs are skyrocketing, which in turn raises crane owner insurance premiums. It’ s a vicious cycle, and the bad guys are winning.
The value of accident verdicts has grown significantly both in frequency and size over the past 10 years:
• Median verdicts rose from $ 19.3 million to $ 24.6 million.
• This 27.5 % increase outstripped inflation of 17.2 % over the same period.
• Florida, California and New York produced the most collective nuclear verdicts, with a combined 575 verdicts worth more than $ 10 million each.
The combination of reptilian-theory courtroom tactics with litigation funding by third-party investors directly affects crane owner insurance costs and limits insurance availability for crane owners.
To protect the viability of their businesses, crane owners must band together to drive collective risk mitigation solutions and to curb the exploitative plaintiffs’ lawyer tactics that contribute to nuclear verdicts and unaffordable insurance.
The Basics of Third-Party Litigation Funding
This litigation dynamic is driving crane insurance rate increases.
TPLF allows private equity managers and other financiers to invest in lawsuits in exchange for a percentage of any settlement or judgement.
This despicable practice started in Australia a few years ago and rapidly expanded to Europe, the U. S. and elsewhere. This litigation dynamic is driving insurance rate increases for crane owners and other high-hazard industries.
Without disclosure requirements and other commonsense safeguards, these funders are in process of taking over litigation that drives unmeritorious lawsuits.
This relatively new litigation dynamic is creating turbulence with insurance companies across the globe.
Litigation funders are actual financial entities that advance money to plaintiff law firms to cover litigation costs on a non-recourse basis contingent on the outcome of the case.
According to the Government Accountability Office, many are private finance institutions, some are publicly traded, some are hedge funds and many receive capital from various sources such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and endowments.
They are not actual parties to the lawsuits that they are
16 October 3, 2025 www. contractorshotline. com