Litigation funding is known by many names, including litigation finance, third party litigation funding, legal funding, settlement funding and lawsuit loans. Litigation funding occurs when third party companies who are unrelated to the litgation provide funding to a plaintiff in circumstances where the third party has assessed the case and believes it to have merit, in exchange for a percentage of the prospective settlement funds or awarded damages. Litigation funding companies now work with law firms as well as individual plaintiffs. IMF Bentham and Lexshares are two of the more prominent litigations funding companies.