Their target for the first year was to average $100,000 in funding per month through the electronic marketplace that matches up investors with lawyers and plaintiffs who need money to pursue their cases.

They're already beating that goal. Since November, Greenberg told me, LexShares has drawn $26 million in requests for funding. Roughly 4% of the cases made it onto the platform after vetting by Volsky and other staff lawyers at LexShares. Logging on today, an observer would see six cases on the menu, all fully funded for $85,000 to $400,000 per case. LexShares is working on getting more cases up on the platform, as it draws inquiries from hedge funds and other large investors in addition to the so-called "qualified investors" – individuals with more than $1 million in liquid assets – it originally saw as its market.

Other litigation-finance outfits are seeing a similar increase in investor interest. Burford Capital shares are up more than 30% this year on the London exchange as the company has reported sharply increasing investments and earnings. Late last month, Burford said earnings increased 48% in the first half of this year over the year-earlier period to $40.6 million, driven by returns on litigation of $30.7 million, up 64% from the first half of 2014.

In his note to investors, Burford Chief Executive Christopher Bogart said the firm pulled in its largest recovery so far, $61 million on a $25 million investment. Burford also placed $81 million in new investments in the first half of 2015, up 33% from last year. Burford has also expanded into the judgement-enforcement business, taking in $2 million in fee income by tracking down deadbeat defendants and collecting a contingency fee if they recover money from them.