Superpowered Solutions

U.S. law requires all financial institutions to know and understand their customers.

When you initially approach us to open a merchant account, we must request specific information to enable us to identify, verify, and maintain records regarding your law firm’s structure, business, and the key owners or shareholders and authorized representatives who control and own the business. This is known as (“KYC”) or Know-your-Customer and (“KYB”) or Know-your-Business.

To create a LawFi merchant account, you must be a duly authorized representative or key owner of the firm with the authority to create the account and agree to our terms of service found in our legal merchant agreement and merchant privacy policy. An assistant to a duly authorized representative of the firm who has agreed to allow such an assistant to share and input business and personal information on behalf of the firm and individuals of the firm may also create an account. The assistant must attest to having the duly authorized representative’s authorization to create the account and bind the firm to the terms of service found in the legal merchant agreement and privacy policy. Such authorization is evidenced by the entry and submission of the firm’s information and owner/authorized representative information for merchant account underwriting.

You will need to have access to the firm’s general information, financial information, business owner/shareholder information, authorized representative information, and authorization to access your bank account login information to connect your required operating and trust account(s) to your LawFi merchant account to receive payments and loan proceeds from LawFi.

The following information will be needed to complete the steps in our merchant account application process:

Step 1
Input Law Firm Information

Step 2
Link Bank Account

Step 3
Upload Trust Plan

Step 4
Add Business Owner/Shareholder Information - for each owner of 25% or more. Add Authorized Representative Information

Step 5
Review and Submit Application

Yes! If your merchant account is not approved, you can email us at help@lawfi.com.

No, we do not charge a fee to join our merchant network. There are no enrollment, set-up, or subscription fees whatsoever.

Once approved, a financing fee is determined based on the client's underwriting decision and scoring of the financed legal matter. A percentage of the total loan proceeds sent to your firm's bank account is calculated (the "Merchant Discount Rate") and charged to your firm to pay our financing fees. After the proceeds are settled into the appropriate account, the financing fee is always pulled from your firm's operating bank account. Fees range from 7.5% to 15% of the total loan proceeds you receive, depending on the underwriting of your firm, the borrower's underwriting, and case scoring.

The short answer: LawFi’s legal fee loans are explicitly crafted to finance legal service fees, unlike other financing options. More importantly, when you offer access to LawFi's proprietary legal fee loans, you are providing your clients with a much better and lower-cost financing option. Our interest rates are substantially lower than high-interest credit cards or Buy-Now-Pay-Later options. We may charge slightly higher merchant financing fees to make this possible for your clients.      

‍The long answer: LawFi loans are smart installment loans. We use proprietary algorithms that know the difference between one legal matter and another. For example, a non-contested divorce case with no assets, children, or disputes will require a much lower loan amount and payback term because the average case should be final within 4-6 months and only cost a few thousand dollars. On the other hand, a complex contested divorce case involving children, assets, and disputes will take much longer to litigate and resolve. It will cost significantly more than a non-contested divorce. Our unique loan decision engine knows the difference. Our system knows how to properly set the loan amount, payback term, conditions, and pricing of the legal fee loan. It’s a specialized loan explicitly customized for each borrower’s legal case and creditworthiness.
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‍We've  spent years building our financing platform and decision engine to underwrite and make one type of loan, the LawFi “Legal Fee Loan.” We are the inventor and the only company offering this new loan type. We provide the only legal fee lending system capable of approving and making legal fee loans to more of your clients than any other financing source. Different sources may only approve 20% to 30% of your clients, while we expect to close 85% of your referred clients.
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A LawFi Legal Fee Loan is customized to the borrower’s specific case type and legal fee needs. LawFi loans are low-interest installment loans underwritten to provide your clients with fast, fair, and flexible fixed monthly payments over the appropriate term. Unlike credit cards with daily compounded interest charges, LawFi loans are simple-interest loans. Also, credit card financing transactions only consider the amount requested and the available credit line. Credit cards are not designed to fund legal services. Credit cards are a high-cost financing tool with limits.
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Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) payment options are not well-suited for financing legal services. BNPL is typically only suitable for small loan amounts and must be repaid over a short term. BNPL options often fail to align the loan terms needed with the underlying demands and realities of the legal case financed. Therefore, a BNPL service is only helpful for funding legal consulting fees, case costs, and low fixed-fee legal matters.
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Credit cards and some BNPL options often have hidden fees and possible chargeback or clawback features. Based on these key differentiators, a LawFi legal fee loan is a much better financing option. It is customized to your client’s case type and legal fee needs. Therefore, our merchant discount rate or financing fees may be higher.     

NO! A lawyer or law firm cannot pass the merchant discount rate or financing fees to the client. Unlike credit cards, where bar rules in some states may allow lawyers to pass credit card interchange fees to clients, no bar rules allow any installment loan financing fees to be passed to clients. More importantly, it is illegal in most states to pass installment loan financing fees to the borrower. LawFi's legal fee loans are governed by state and federal lending laws prohibiting merchants from passing these costs to their customers directly or in the form of a surcharge or other hidden fee. This would cause a Truth in Lending Act violation, as such fees would increase the total disclosed APR of the loan. In some states, it will cause the APR to exceed allowable caps, or it may violate usury laws. It may not be appropriately disclosed in the TILA form required to be provided to the borrower.