A company that invests in personal injury lawsuits was not usurious in charging an annual percentage-rate return of 45.93 percent on an advance of money to a plaintiff because “the repayment of principal is entirely contingent on the success of the underlying lawsuit” and thus is not a loan, a state appeals court has ruled.

An Appellate Division, First Department panel also ruled that interest rates at issue were not unconscionable because the lawsuit’s plaintiff, Arthur Brunetti, failed to show that he “did not have a meaningful choice in entering into the agreement [with the company, Cash4Cases,] and that the terms of the agreement were unreasonably favorable to plaintiff.”