Oasis Financial Reviews

About Oasis Financial

By HighYa Research Team

As their name implies, Oasis Financial specializes in lawsuit and legal funding services targeted toward individuals who need to liquefy cash related to pending legal settlements.

The company claims to be the “largest and most recognized national brand in legal finance providing non-recourse lawsuit funding to consumers involved in personal injury litigation,” and to be a fast and efficient method of obtaining the cash you need.

In business since 2002, Oasis Legal Finance is based out of Chicago, IL, and is a founding member of American Legal Finance Association (ALFA).

The company holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, which is based on 13 closed complaints over the past three years.

Based on our research, the most common complaints we encountered cited high fees, which in some instances amounted to more than the final settlement (read more about this in the Bottom Line section).

How Oasis Financial Works

Oasis Financial can help you liquefy future payments related to structured settlements, and turn it into a lump sum cash payment.

Unlike these other companies, though, Oasis Financial specializes in lawsuit and legal funding.

For example: If you’re involved in a personal injury suit and find yourself unemployed for a period of time, your obligations don’t stop. You may have a mortgage, car note, medical and legal bills, and more, all of which need to be paid each month.

With this in mind, Oasis Financial claims to have “a simple, fast and efficient streamlined funding process” that can provide you with the cash you need, in exchange for “selling” them the future payments related to a pending settlement. This is how it works:

1. You submit your application and give Oasis Financial permission to speak with your attorney, who will then contact them to see whether or not your case qualifies.
2. Your lawyer will prepare documents relevant to your case, including retainer agreements, incident reports, medical bill summaries, and so forth.
3. If Oasis Financial's “team of legal, business and financial professionals” deems your case to be strong, funding will proceed from there. For full details, see the company’s Funding Overview.

Oasis Financial Pricing

According to the Oasis Financial website, applying is free, and there are no upfront costs. The company also claims that, because the process is not a traditional loan, your credit rating has no impact on your approval, which can often be obtained in 2 days.

Fees associated with your future payment purchase often vary and will need to be discussed with the company at 877-333-6675 or via an online form.

Pros

• Claims to be the “largest and most recognized national brand in legal finance.”
• Claims that if you don’t win your case, there’s nothing to repay.
• Extensive website with very detailed information about the legal funding process.
• A rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Cons

• Numerous customer complaints involving high fees, in some instances, totaling more than the final settlement amount.

Bottom Line – Should you Use Oasis Financial Finance?

Keep in mind that, while the cash provided by Oasis Financial technically doesn’t constitute a loan, if you don’t repay it quickly, large fees and high interest rates can quickly add up.

In fact, according to this NY Times article from 2011, because legal lending “remains unregulated in most states,” they are “unrestrained by laws that cap interest rates,” which “often exceed 100 percent a year.”

This means that if your case doesn’t conclude soon after taking out your “loan,” you could end up paying thousands in interest.

As a testament to this, one of the individuals mentioned in the article owed Oasis Legal Finance more than $23,000 after it took their case 18 months to settle, on a loan that originally totaled just over $9,000. To further solidify the issue, you can read about similar situations here, here, and here.

In addition, Oasis Legal Finance was sued by the State of Colorado in 2010 for alleged deceptive trade practices and unlicensed lending, which appears to have been upheld by the courts.

Ultimately, Oasis counter-sued, claiming that “the state was improperly trying to regulate them as lenders under the Uniform Consumer Credit Code.” A copy of the court documents can be found here.

What this comes down to is that if you don’t absolutely have to take out a “legal funding” loan, it’s best to avoid them altogether.