header-logo header-logo

20 June 2025 / David Greene
Issue: 8121 / Categories: Opinion , Litigation funding , Collective action , Regulatory
printer mail-detail

Bringing litigation funding into line

223039
Reversing the decision in PACCAR & proposals for wider change have been widely welcomed but how likely are many of them to be implemented? David Greene reports

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

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

International arbitration team strengthened by double partner hire

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Firm celebrates trio holding senior regional law society and junior lawyers division roles

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Partner joins commercial and business litigation team in London

NEWS
The Legal Action Group (LAG)—the UK charity dedicated to advancing access to justice—has unveiled its calendar of training courses, seminars and conferences designed to support lawyers, advisers and other legal professionals in tackling key areas of public interest law
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
Employment law is shifting at the margins. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ this week, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School examines a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that volunteers are not a special legal species and may qualify as ‘workers’
back-to-top-scroll