We asked Thursday if New York politicians will finally stand up to the legal shark industry that’s been bleeding taxpayers by exploiting City Hall’s eagerness to settle lawsuits. One reason they’ve been AWOL is now clear.

As The Post reports, those lawyers — who encourage questionable lawsuits by handing out quick cash advances to potential plaintiffs — have been spreading their largesse all over Albany. And reaping the lion’s share is Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Execs at one of the largest such firms, Brooklyn-based LawCash, have lavished $145,000 in donations to state pols, with the AG getting $39,000. Schneiderman has never taken action against LawCash — though last year he did sue one of its rivals for similar practices.

Besides the direct donations, a lobbying group co-founded by LawCash’s president has spent $304,380 — more than half since 2016, when a bill to regulate “third party litigation financing” passed the state Senate but died in the (always trial-lawyer-friendly) Assembly.

Firms like LawCash offer up-front cash to prospective plaintiffs, then cash in by collecting a hefty “repayment” at loan-shark rates, far above the legal limit on loan-repayment rates. (They dodge the law by not requiring losing plaintiffs to repay, so the advance technically isn’t a loan.)

Everyone seems to come out ahead except the taxpayers, because the practice promotes dubious cases that otherwise never would’ve been filed. Not helping is the city’s eagerness to offer settlements, especially in cases against cops and correction officers.

Of the whopping $722 million City Hall paid out last year on civil claims, more than half came from settlements.

That cash fuels the sharks’ gifts to Schneiderman and other pols — who, natch, use the funds to polish their claims to be principled idealists.