Blog
If litigation funding has become a multi-billion-pound investment market, why isn't it regulated like one?That was the question posed in the House of Lords by Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted, who tabled an amendment calling for third-party litigation funders to come under the supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).Ministers accepted that litigation funding requires greater regulation. What they failed to explain is why they continue to resist the obvious regulator.That reluctance is becoming increasingly difficult to defend.
Read More →Blog
For more than a decade, litigation funding has been sold as a modern solution to an old problem. By allowing third parties to finance legal claims, supporters argue, claimants gain access to justice while funders simply provide the capital that makes legitimate cases possible.That narrative has always overlooked an uncomfortable reality.Litigation funding is not simply about access to justice. It is a commercial industry that profits from legal disputes. Like any other investment market, it depends on generating returns, attracting capital and finding new opportunities for growth.The collapse of Woodville Consultants should force policymakers to confront that reality.
Read More →Blog
The Government says its latest proposals will deliver a "light-touch" reform of class action litigation.Businesses should read the small print.The consultation follows recommendations from the Civil Justice Council to regulate litigation funding rather than fundamentally reform it. Instead of asking whether the UK's rapidly expanding class action market has gone too far, ministers are focusing on making the system work more efficiently—through greater transparency, clearer rules around settlement offers and proportionate oversight of litigation funders.That may sound modest.In practice, it risks making large-scale litigation easier to finance, easier to manage and ultimately more attractive to claimant firms and commercial funders.
Read More →Blog
The proposed £1.6 billion collective action against Rightmove is about far more than estate agency fees. It is another test of how far the UK's class action regime should extend—and whether increasingly ambitious claims are being subjected to sufficient scrutiny.Jeremy Newman, a former Competition and Markets Authority panel member, is seeking to bring the claim on behalf of around 7,200 estate agents, letting agents and property developers, alleging that Rightmove abused its dominant market position by charging excessive listing fees.Rightmove rejects the allegations and says it will defend the proceedings vigorously.Importantly, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has not ruled on the merits of the case.
Read More →Blog
The Competition Appeal Tribunal's decision ordering consumer rights lawyer Elisabetta Sciallis to pay £1.5 million in legal costs after proposed collective proceedings against leading musical instrument manufacturers collapsed is one of the most significant class action rulings of the year.While the underlying allegations concerned resale price maintenance, the judgment ultimately turned on something far more fundamental – litigation funding.When Sciallis' funder withdrew and no replacement funding was secured, the Tribunal found that neither it nor the proposed defendants were informed promptly. That failure proved costly, with the CAT concluding the conduct fell well outside the standards expected in complex collective litigation.
Read More →Blog
The collapse of the Bayer Essure group litigation is a reminder that mass claims generate headlines—but evidence wins cases.Pogust Goodhead has advised around 200 women to abandon their claim against Bayer over its Essure sterilisation device after concluding the case was unlikely to succeed at trial.The group had sought approximately £10 million in damages, alleging the device caused illness and injury. After years of litigation, however, independent King's Counsel reportedly advised that the medical evidence was insufficient to establish legal causation.
Read More →
Independent information platform on class action risks, litigation funding structures, and claimant awareness.