User:RachelMathews/sandbox

Bairs Foundation is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization in the United States that provides low-cost funding to plaintiffs to help them cover the basic living expenses while they go through litigation. Lawsuit lending provides pre-settlement advances to people who need help making ends meet while they are pursuing a personal injury lawsuit. The Bairs Foundation is the first and only not-for-profit organization providing these pre-settlement advances to plaintiffs, and plaintiffs only. The Foundation does not provide funding for law firms, lawyers, or legal expenses. Due to the nature of being not-for-profit, Bairs Foundation provides non-recourse advances with fair, low, simple interest rates.

The Bairs Foundation was co-founded in January 2016 by John and Amy Bair. The foundation is overseen by Executive Director Rachel Mathews, who joined in March 2017. In April 2018 the Bairs Foundation received approval by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit, tax exempt, 501(c)(3), publicly supported organization. The Foundation is licensed to operate in all 50 states. Current board members include the Bairs, Rachel Mathews, Chris Keller, Ashleigh Then, and John Richmond, Esq.

John Bair, co-founder, received the Paul H. Chapman Award from the Foundation for Improvement of Justice in August of 2019.

The foundation is largely donation-based. They operate by charging a nominal application fee and low simple interest on their non-recourse pre-settlement advances. When an advance gets paid back by a family after their case has settled, the funding goes back into the pool of funds available for future loans. This non-profit model of lending is self-sustaining and can continue in perpetuity so long as advances can successfully be repaid. As of the start of the fourth year of operation, the Bairs Foundation's successful payback rate is 99.9%.

Since the foundation’s inception, they claim to have funded over 300 plaintiffs and their families, loaning those plaintiffs over $2.3 million. By providing this service, the Foundation allows plaintiffs to avoid predatory lenders who might end up charging nearly usurious interest rates. Additionally, the funding they provide enables plaintiffs to follow through with their lawsuit. Lawsuits can take years to resolve, and it is typical for a plaintiff to be going up against deep-pocket defendants such as corporations or pharmaceutical companies. The defendant can spend tons of money on the lawsuit, yet the longer it draws out the harder it might become on the plaintiff and their family. An injured person might decide to drop their lawsuit altogether, or to settle and “take whatever they can get”, but by helping relieve this financial duress, the Bairs Foundation enables the injured party to see their lawsuit through to its just end.

The Bairs Foundation was created to be an alternative option for non-recourse lending in a currently unregulated industry. The Foundation seeks to keep people out of poverty while they seek justice. Tragedy can happen to anyone at any time, so the population served by the Foundation's work is large, vast, diverse, and all-inclusive.