Oddly enough, lawsuits cost money. Usually lots and lots of money, and for many people it may be difficult, if not impossible to cover the expenses of litigation so you can see it to its conclusion. As a result, an entire industry has formed around this need, providing litigation funding to clients who want to keep their lawsuits going. Any Lawsuits is one of the newer loan services offering funding for various types of lawsuits, and is the subject of this review.

A division of Alpine Funding, AnyLawsuits.com is currently in the process of a redesign, but so far their site has been easy to read and navigate, complete with a FAQ section that offers more details on how their funding service works. They also accurately explain that “lawsuit loans” aren’t actually loans, but are really cash advances, so the terms of agreement for this type of funding will be different from what you would expect from a typical bank loan.

Unfortunately, it was hard to garner how good the reputation of this lending company was. The site offers no testimonials from previous clients, and a search inquiry at the Better Business Bureau was unable to turn up any more information. In addition, there was little information as to what the terms of their cash advances might be, other than that you would be required to pay some type of flat fee once you receive a settlement. While this fee is sure to vary from case to case, it would help to give the visitor some general idea of how much he or she might be expected to pay in order to receive litigation funding, and outline what the typical conditions of their contract would be. Such disclosure should go far in establishing trust with current and potentially new clients.

A word to the wise though: litigation funding as a whole is not cheap, and according to financials experts should only be seen as a last recourse. How much you will pay back for such cash advances will depend on the provider, but usually there is either a recurring interest fee you will pay per month, based on the amount of the cash advance, or you will pay a flat fee once the lawsuit is settled. The interest rates can often be high, and since this type of lending is not subject to usury laws, the propensity for abuse is enormous. Say you were to receive $10,000 in funding, with a recurring fee of 10% per month. That’s a $1,000 you’ll pay out of pocket every month until your lawsuit is concluded. And if a lender is particularly shady, you may get hit with all types of unexpected fees while your lawsuit is ongoing.

Not all it’s cracked up to be is it?

As always, exercise due diligence and research before commiting to any one funding service. For more helpful information, check out these articles:

• 10 Rules of Lawsuits Loans
• Lawsuit Loans - Caveat Emptor
• Questions For Your Lawsuit Financing Company

There are probably more web hosting services out there than there are beanie babies, making the task of finding a good service a really daunting one at times.

A site called Web Hosting Unleashed however aims to make the process of finding a hosting service much easier for you. When I accessed their site, the first thing I noticed when I loaded their main page was the SPEED. Usually hosting review sites are bloated with ads, scripts and whatnots, which makes the load time almost unbearable at times. Not so here, and believe me, this was a welcome relief.

The first thing my eyes were drawn to after the page loaded were a few hosting banner ads, which I immediately suspected of being affiliate links. I started thinking, “Oh great, not another one of those sites,” by which I meant spam sites that were light on content and heavy on the affiliate links. As I dug further though my suspicions melted away and I was convinced that this was thankfully a legitimate website for once. Yay!

Navigation is made easy via the use of menu tabs, though I would get rid of the redundant navigation links contained at the footer (the links at the header should be enough). I’m of the mindset that every link takes you to a different place, and for those visitors who treat links the same way, redundant links will probably only confuse them more, as well as unnecessarily adding to the site’s overall “busyness.”

After surfing around for a few minutes, it became clear that the best offerings you’ll find here are the extensive listing of coupon codes available for hosting services you sign up for, and the user reviews you can find for any hosting service you’re interested in. Due to the site’s longevity (they’ve been around since 2002), there are already many reviews available that you can sift through and read, even for hosting companies that haven’t enjoyed much exposure.

I would have like to have more control over how reviews and other listings were sorted, but this is a minor inconvenience, and there are enough tabs and choices to choose from to help you find the relevant information you’re searching for. They are constantly redesigning the site though, so it’s possible more sorting options will be offered later on.

There is also a guide section that has a surprisingly long list of helpful articles and tutorials to help you get started, and a blog that provides the latest news and coupon codes relating to the web hosting industry. If you’re a beginner who is just getting started looking for a hosting solution, their article, “9 Tips For Not Getting Screwed By Your Web Host” offers some of the best advice I’ve seen to avoid getting ripped off or hosed by a hosting provider.

Overall, I’m pleased to have discovered this site, and have bookmarked it for the future should the time come when I have to find a new hosting service myself (which hopefully won’t be any time soon).

God has seen fit that I should not make my journey through life without having a persistent, (and oftentimes irritating) conscience to guide me. Unsure as to how I could introduce this important figure on my blog, I decided just to name “him” Jiminy Cricket. And my old friend Cricket was at it once again when I took the stack of textbooks and primers I had bought some time ago to prep for law school, and started putting some of them up for bid on eBay.

“What are you doing?” Jiminy inquired.

“I’m selling my books. My law school plans are done. It’s time to move on.”

“Why don’t you wait a little while longer?? You might still be able to go!”

“Why?? My boss screwed me over, it’s already two weeks past the deadline to make a deposit, it’s finished!”

Ole’ Jiminy then hopped onto my desk. “Give God a chance to work, it’s not over yet. There’s still plenty of time, and God always tends to move when things look impossible.”

I threw my hands up in frustration. “Look, how long do I have to put up with this? My prayers haven’t been answered, in fact just the opposite of what I asked for happened. I’ve been running around in circles with this for over 18 months. I’m sick of it. I’m tired, and I just want to move on with my life.”

“You need to be patient, my friend. You’ve seen in the past that God is never in a hurry. Give Him space to work.”

“Space this,” I said, and shooed Cricket away as I placed 2 of my law books up on eBay.