Without disclosure of third-party litigation funding (TPLF), courts and parties have no way to know if such funding could impact their litigation and are prevented from appropriately utilizing several FRCP provisions and witness safeguards. For instance, courts and parties:

• do not know if a non-party has control or undue influence over litigation and settlement decisions;
• do not know if there are conflicts of interest with the undisclosed funder;
• are unable to understand the resources of the party in making cost determinations, including decisions relating to proportionality of discovery requests and cost–allocation decisions;
• are forced to engage in ad hoc procedures to make TPLF-related determinations which inherently lack consistency, predictability, and are often not correct (ex parte conversations about TPLF, without disclosure to all parties, is not an effective or appropriate process for determining the meaning of contracts that could affect all parties to a case);
• do not know who – including non-parties — may have access to private and proprietary information whose confidentiality should be ensured via protective orders;