A Bill to reverse PACCAR has reached the second reading stage in the House of Lords
The Litigation Funding Agreements (Enforceability) Bill responds to the Supreme Court’s decision in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others [2023] UKSC 28, which held some litigation funding agreements are technically damages-based agreements and therefore could be unenforceable.
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said the Bill could enable access to justice where it was otherwise unachievable, but that there was a ‘need to ensure that consumer interests are protected so that funding arrangements do not result in hollow victories for claimants’.
Emmerson highlighted that some provisions of the Bill would be applied retrospectively, for which the rule of law requires ‘a strong justification’. He said: ‘We look forward to the government outlining its reasoning as to why retrospectivity is appropriate in this instance.’
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