Increase in third party litigation funders in the UK

There has been a marked increase in the number of third party funders following the Jackson report, according to a new report into third party litigation funding commissioned by leading City law firm, Fox Williams LLP, and specialist legal market research company, Jures.

Third party funding is where investors who have no other connection with the litigation support legal claims in exchange for a financial return. The concept is already established in Australia and is starting to take-off in the UK, with a number of funds having been set-up to invest specifically in litigation.

The Fox Williams report profiles the third party litigation funding market following the publication of Lord Justice Jackson’s Review of Civil Justice Costs earlier this year and his broad endorsement of this method of funding legal claims. The report draws on interviews with the main players - funders both in the UK and abroad, insurers, leading litigators, academics and commentators – to identify the factors that will drive and shape the market.

Fox William’s head of dispute resolution Tom Custance, said: “The prospect of a vibrant third party litigation funding market has huge opportunities and some threats for the business community.

“No-one wants to see any increase in unmeritorious legal activity but that is unlikely to happen because funders will in practice only fund cases with a strong chance of success.”

He added that the benefits of promoting access to justice for individual or corporate clients who can’t afford to pay legal fees or those who would rather hedge the financial exposure of litigation by involving a funder are huge. “There is a process of education both for business and indeed for the legal profession,” he said.