U.S. EXPERIMENTING WITH THIRD-PARTY LITIGATION FUNDING
A recent Law.com story, “More Attorneys Exploring Third-Party Litigation Funding” reports that more corporate clients are considering litigation funding to help finance their legal claims. Third-party litigation funding is a relatively recent phenomenon in the United States, after establishing itself in Australia, then later in the United Kingdom. Two litigation funds have in the last three years launched initial public offerings, and both are on the lookout for U.S. litigants who would allow them to finance their case in return for a portion of any settlement or judgment. Juridica Investment Ltd, which launched in 2007, last month reported that through March it had committed almost $123 million to 15 investments in 22 cases, one of which is in New York, according to a spokesman. Burford Capital Ltd., which went public in October, has so far invested $40 million across 10 cases, many of them international arbitrations. Juridica and Burford are two of the largest funds dedicated solely to litigation finance.
In regulatory filings, one of Burford’s earliest investments was a trade secret theft and breach of contract matter in an undisclosed U.S. federal court that was schedule for trial last month. Burford invested $2 million to cover the costs of getting it to trial and cover some of the outstanding legal fees. Burford stands to receive 35 percent to 67 percent of any recovery from that lawsuit.