Litigation financing - funding the lawsuit in exchange for a percentage of recovery - is not limited to class actions. I knew someone that was in a firm that did this. Everything I ever heard about it from him made it sound like it was run in a very similar manner to venture capital firms. I never once heard the word "loan" or any indication that the risk of losing every penny invested on a specific lawsuit was anything other than "high".

Now, these firms aren't very likely to even take a meeting from the type of law firm that advertises on billboards or TV.