California May Make It Harder to Secretly Bankroll Someone Else’s Lawsuit

By Peter Blumberg, Bloomberg Businessweek

Bankrolling other people’s court fights dates to the Dark Ages, when it was a favorite tactic of noblemen who wanted to harass their enemies. In recent years litigation funding has become a multibillion-dollar industry as investors have quietly fronted the costs of civil suits in exchange for a piece of any eventual monetary awards.

The billionaire investor Peter Thiel turned the practice into a tool of revenge this year, surreptitiously paying for pro wrestler Hulk Hogan’s privacy suit against the website Gawker, which published a Hogan sex tape. The case went to trial and ended ...