New York is the financial capital of the world, so it's no surprise that its courts have embraced litigation funding. When third parties provide capital to litigants or law firms in connection with legal claims, they help cash-poor litigants access the courts, and they allow large companies to pursue meritorious litigation and deploy limited cash into their core business.

Criticism nevertheless persists, exemplified by a recent front-page article in this newspaper profiling a law firm report that called funding an "albatross" on New York's civil justice system that subjects our courts to "parasitism" and "fraud."