The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit’s recent pronouncement about the inability of district courts to simply abandon an often-disparaged form of litigation funding, known as post-settlement lending agreements, may have come in a limited context, but, according to some observers, the ruling could prove instructive as courts and legislators continue to parse out the judiciary’s role in the emerging world of litigation funding.

Late last month, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Third Circuit ruled that U.S. District Judge Anita Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who is overseeing the implementation of the NFL concussion settlement, went beyond the court’s reach when she nullified numerous lending agreements in their entirety.