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Director Mohsin Patel comments on the Litigation Funding Agreements Bill in City A.M.

With the news of a snap election throwing plans for the proposed Litigation Funding Agreements Bill into disarray, Director Mohsin Patel comments on how this development will alter the course of the Bill and impact the legal sector more widely, in City AM.

Mohsin’s comments were published in City A.M., 29 May 2024, and can be found here.

“While many in the industry were hoping the Litigation Funding Bill would be dealt with in the “wash-up” period before Parliament is formally dissolved, the news of the snap election has thrown these plans into disarray. This is frustrating for many, particularly given the relatively swift manner in which the government had sought to rectify its position on litigation funding following the controversial PACCAR judgment being handed down, which had given the industry grounds for optimism.

“Given the non-partisan nature of the Bill, and the groundswell in public opinion in support of the funding industry following the Post Office scandal, it seems unlikely that a potential Labour government will alter the course of the Bill, particularly given the recent review launched by the Civil Justice Council (CJC) into litigation funding.

“As most, if not all, Litigation Funding Agreements (LFAs) for ongoing cases have already been amended, this development will not prove critical for those cases. Instead, it will potentially be important for a subset of cases which have been resolved, or will be resolved soon, and where amendments to the LFAs have not been made – leaving room for arguments by unscrupulous claimants seeking to unwind their funding agreements, or indeed Defendants who will aim to maximise the current uncertainty to their advantage.”