While limited in some states, third party litigation funding has taken hold in recent years at the expense of transparency. The litigation funders mostly run under the radar as most states do not have laws forcing secret litigators to reveal their role. The issue emerged this week with reports that PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel backed Hulk Hogan’s privacy suit against the news outlet Gawker. (LAW.COM, May 25, 2016, by Ben Hancock)
Thiel was upset with Gawker after it published a 2007 article revealing that Thiel was gay and put up $10 million that Hogan did not have to support the privacy suit. Thiel said that Gawker bullies people with their articles publishing information not in the public interest. Thiel did not see any contradiction between his support of Hogan and his financial contributions in support of free speech. “I refuse to believe that journalism means massive privacy violations, I think much more highly of journalists than that. It’s precisely because I respect journalists that I do not believe they are endangered by fighting back against Gawker,” he said. (The New York Times, May 26, 2016, by Andrew Ross Sorkin)
Facing defeats in Florida state courts, Gawker founder Nick Denton is seeking buyers for the company. A Florida jury awarded $140 million to Hogan. (New York Post, May 26, 2016, by Claire Atkinson)