Give Your Customers The Best Options in Legal Fee & Retainer Financing.
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Our Legal Fee Lending platform was built to adhere to the 5key bar regulations governing client finance; No compulsion to perform, no limitation of choice, no compensation other than the collection of legal fees, arms-length transaction, and fair market pricing. The intention of the program is not to just help attorneys get paid but to remove the cost barrier for clients who are seeking legal representation.
Because we only do a soft credit pull with the initial enrollment application, your clients will know what their loan terms are before the formal application process. Clients that are declined by all lenders will not have their credit score affected. We also offer you alternative payment-plan options for your clients that are unable to secure funds through the platform. Our program is paperless.
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We make it easy. From enrollment and training to servicing your clients' offers and loan applications. Its like having your own personal financing department. We provide you with the tools and training and back it up with unmatched ongoing customer service. All activity and communication is tracked through our online merchant portal which provides real-time status updates on every applicant. Our platform was designed with simplicity andconvenience in mind.
Legal services is not deemed a "preferred"vertical market by traditional lenders which leaves law firms seekingalternative lending options for their clients. Unfortunately, most alternativeoptions offer predatory interest rates, fluctuating discount costs to the firmand do not adhere to bar rules governing client finance.
ePay Finance has years of experience and a proven track record of assisting firms to provide representation to cash-strapped clients while eliminating the time and effort that staff spends on follow up and collections. There are many testimonials available for ePay Finance.
Founded in 2000, ePay's loan referral financing solutionprovides more approvals, higher loan amounts and longer-term options thantraditional lending options. We cater to attorneys and law firms with a focuson compliance.
The ePay marketplace lending platform features instant credit decisions and aggressive credit policies. The goal for the platform is to make it as comprehensive and simple for the firm as possible. Firms that enroll in the ePay Finance consumer financing platform give their clients access to multiple lenders with a single pre-application process. We blanket the borrower pool with offers for those with excellent credit expecting low, single-digit interest rates to those with sub-prime credit that are typically not desirable for most lenders.
Many applicants receive multiple offers so they can choose the offer with the terms, interest rate and payment that best fits their budget. Initial offers are made without affecting credit scores.
Applicants may receive multiple offers from multiple lenders providing an opportunity to the borrower to choose the offer that best fits their budget.
Clients are able to check offers and approval terms with just a short pre-application with a soft credit pull which won't effect their credit score. They simply click the offer they want to start the loan process.
The entire process, from completing the pre-application to completing the loan documentation and uploading of stipulations (Usually just a driver's license and proof of income) is all electronic.
Clients are funded directly by the borrower and firms are notified upon funding to collect their fees. There is no recourse or liability to the firm if the borrower defaults on the loan.
Firms are billed a discount fee on collected loan amounts. If a firm is unable to retain a client after funding or collects a lesser amount than what was funded to the client, the firm is only responsible for fees on the collected amount.
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Law Offices are provided a custom landing page and application link. Firms are able to have clients complete the application on the fly from any web-enabled electronic device such as laptops, tablets or mobile phones.
No Firm or Case Restrictions
Traditional lending programs like to work with specific "preferred" vertical markets. Unfortunately, Law Firms are not one of them. They typically also have minimum "time in business" and "annual revenue" requirements to participate in their programs and individual cases must be approved, often leading to uncovered representation and partial funding. Most lenders typically only fund once services have been completed. Because our program is direct-to-borrower, you can collect your fees upfront regardless of the case. Criminal Defense, Divorce, Family, Adoption, Immigration, Estate, Bankruptcy, Tax, Business, Labor and More can all be billed to and collected from your client upfront.
No Recourse to Your Firm
Clients are funded directly and participating firms are notified upon funding to collect their fees. Not only is there no recourse to your office if the borrower defaults on the loan but firms are only billed discount rates on collected fees. If a client decides to use the funds for another purpose, there is no cost to you.
Custom Landing Page & Loan Application
Every participating law office receives their own borrower application link and custom landing page. Firms are able to have clients complete the application, on the fly, from any web-enabled device; such as a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Application links can be emailed or linked to from your website.
Fast & Flexible Offers
Our marketplace lending platform features immediate credit decisions and "check-your-rate" functionality which allows your client to check approval terms without affecting your customer's credit score. Many applicants will receive multiple offers from more than one lender providing an opportunity to the client to choose the offer that best suits their budget.
Get Paid Upfront
With traditional lending options the merchant is typically not funded untilproduct is delivered or services are completed. This can be a problem insituations where completion of delivery of product or service is not immediateor when required materials must be purchased ahead of time. With our platform,merchants are notified upon funding and can collect a partial down payment orin full upon notification.
No Compulsion To Perform
Lender must have no oversight role over an attorney’s representation of aclient; There can be No Recourse to the attorney of any funds received.
ALL LOANS ON THE EPAY PLATFORM ARE 100% NON-RECOURSE
No Limitation of Choice of Attorney
The attorney cannot be funded in a manner that compels a client to work onlywith that attorney & so limits choice.
ALL LOANS ARE MADE DIRECTLY TO THE BORROWER WITHOUT RESTRICTION AS TO USE OFFUNDS. BORROWER IS FREE TO USE FUNDS AS THEY WISH.
No Compensation Other Than Collection of Legal Fees
Attorney may not receive compensation in any form beyond receipt of their legal fees and recovery of actual costs (such as credit card fees) as a result of the transaction.
ALL COSTS TO THE CONSUMER ARE PAID EXCLUSIVELY TO THE LENDER AND NOT COMPOUNDEDBY ALSO PAYING ANY BROKER A FEE TO PROVIDE SERVICE TO FIRM. EPAY MANAGEMENT ISNOT A BROKER AND EPAY RECEIVES NO COMPENSATION FROM THE BORROWER NOR LENDER INANY FORM WHATSOEVER.
Arm’s Length Transaction
Attorney may have no formal or informal relationship with the lender.
EPAY MANAGEMENT IS NOT A LENDER NOR BROKER AND FUNCTIONS SOLELY AS A CONCIERGEFOR CLIENT FIRMS BY PROVIDING AN AGGREGATION OF COMPETING LENDERS OTHERWISEUNAVAILABLE EXCEPT AS EACH LENDER APPEARS INDIVIDUALLY AND INDEPENDENTLYONLINE. CLIENT FIRMS HAVE NO RELATIONSHIP OF ANY NATURE WITH PLATFORM LENDERS.
Fair Market Pricing
Attorney must assure the reasonable expectation a potential client will receive treatment consistent with Fair Market pricing from any referred source.
FAIR MARKET PRICING IS ASSURED BY THE COMPETITIVE NATURE OF THE PLATFORM –MULTIPLE LENDERS PLACE THEIR BEST POSSIBLE OFFERS BASED ON THE APPLICANT'SCREDIT PROFILE AND DEBT TO INCOME RATIO CONSISTENT WITH EACH LENDERSUNDERWRITING CRITERIA. CLIENT CHOOSES THE OFFER THEY PREFER.ePay functions solely as a Concierge for our Client firmsproviding an aggregation of competing lenders otherwise unavailable except aseach lender appears individually and independently online.
This service is offered strictly as a convenience for the firms’ prospectiveand existing clients, in the same manner in which credit cards are accepted.
Give Your Customers The Best Options in Legal Fee & Retainer Financing.
No. Clients are provided an application link for a specific law firm or company that is already established on the platform.
The minimum FICO score required is 550 but each loan application is different. Our lenders base loan offers on Credit score, Income, Debt-to0Income ratio and Charge-off history.
Pre-approvals are provided instantly. Once a client clicks through on an offer and submits the loan agreement and stipulations, it is typically 2 business days for funding.
Yes. The platform is built on the 5 key bar pillars regarding client financing; No compulsion to perform, no limitation of choice of attorney, no compensation other than the collection of legal fees, arms-length transaction and fair market pricing.
No. All of our loans come with no recourse to the attorney.
Firms are billed 4.99% of the collected amount from the borrower. Invoices are sent out 8 days after funding notifications. If the attorney is unable to retain the client after funding or collects a lesser amount than the funded amount. The invoice is revised or cancelled.
We do. We don’t expect you to have a relationship with our lending partners. Our application support team does all the follow up once a client submits an application and we notify you of any communication or status changes.
Traditional lenders only support certain merchant types and usually have volume and time in business requirements. ePay Finance is a non-traditional financing option and we target those vertical markets that traditional lenders do not support as well as smaller or new businesses.
The biggest difference is that ClientCredit is a single lender option while ePay Finance has more than 30 lending partners accessible through a single application. This means more approvals and more options for your clients. ClientCredit approves loans up to $17,500 while ePay Finance provides loan options up to $100,000. The costs of the programs are relatively similar.
Absolutely! Many businesses use ePay Finance as an answer for their underfunded customers.
Yes. ePay Finance has an API available for software integration. We are currently fully integrated with Clio and are working on additional integrations.
Formal Opinion 484
In November of 2018 the American Bar Association's Standing Committee On Ethics and Professional Responsibility published Formal Opinion 484 regarding "A Lawyers Obligations When Clients Use Companies or Brokers to Finance the Lawyer's Fee".
You can download the opinon here: Formal Opinion 484
