73 Am. U. L. Rev. 1057 (2024).

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Abstract

Judgment preservation insurance (“JPI”) is a newer, under-the-radar financial innovation upending the litigation landscape today. By insuring plaintiffs’ trial victories on appeal, these policies neutralize the risk of reversal, but have been criticized for preventing settlement and extending disputes. Despite JPI’s growing use, a regulatory blind spot allows these policies to remain concealed from the courts throughout the appellate process. We spotlight JPI, contrast it with widely used litigation insurance products, and propose appellate disclosure requirements in line with existing insurance disclosure rules. These simple changes would close the disclosure gap on appeal.

* Adjunct Professor, American University Washington College of Law; General Counsel of Unified Patents, LLC; and frequent writer and speaker. A huge thanks to Sam and to Michelle Aspen and David Seastrunk of Unified for their expert help with editing, revising and citation work, and to Priya Adlakha for her help with some of the background Sections. The Authors used large language model enabled tools in researching and writing portions of this Article.

** Senior Principal Counsel—IP, Garmin International, Inc. The views expressed in this paper are those of the Authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Garmin International, Inc.