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

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
back-to-top-scroll