Bringing litigation funding into line

The Civil Justice Council (CJC) published its findings in the ‘Review of Litigation Funding’, ahead of schedule and in time for London International Disputes Week, to inform the debate on the subject run by the Collective Redress Lawyers Association between claimant and defendant lawyers: ‘The growth of group litigation and funding in the British courts—a blessing or a curse?’.

The CJC report undoubtedly sees funding as a blessing, albeit one requiring regulation, concluding that funding provides access to justice not just in specific litigation but also in a wider societal sense. An instant poll at the debate suggested that those attending agreed by majority. But what might we expect to happen now? This would not be the first time the CJC has proposed change but then simply been ignored.

But whether funding is a blessing or a curse is not binary. Neither