Funding

The right under EU law for people with legal expenses insurance to choose their own lawyer in legal proceedings extends to mediation, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled.

The High Court has rejected litigation funder Burford Capital’s attempt to identify who traded in its shares during last August’s short-selling attack in a bid to bring claims of market manipulation.

RBG Holdings – the listed business that owns City law firm Rosenblatt and invests in its own cases – has launched a litigation funding business for other law firms to tap into.

Litigation funder Burford Capital has so far committed half of the $50m (£38m) fund established to finance cases led by women lawyers as part of an initiative designed to help close the gender gap in law.

Clients previously willing to pay lawyers by the hour are now looking at damages-based agreements in light of the coronavirus crisis, a leading City law firm has claimed.

Claimant solicitors acted unreasonably in switching a client from legal aid to a pre-LASPO CFA-lite, the Court of Appeal has ruled, meaning they cannot recover £1.1m in additional liabilities.

The impact of the Jackson reforms on the funding of insolvency litigation – though significant – has not been as serious as some had predicted but costs remain high, new research has found.

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to lead to an increase in demand for litigation funding in the longer term, Burford Capital has told investors.