Post-PACCAR: truckloads of litigation-funding developments

• Considers recent litigation funding cases in the context of the PACCAR decision, and predicts what’s next for the industry.

Since the Supreme Court gave judgment in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others [2023] UKSC 28 in July 2023, there has been much debate on the impact of the decision. Now the dust has started to settle, we are beginning to see judicial challenges arising under PACCAR, with litigants seeking to establish that existing litigation funding agreements (LFAs) fall within the ambit of PACCAR as non-compliant damages-based agreements (DBAs) with mixed success. At the same time, with the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry highlighting the key role litigation funding can play in providing access to justice, the government has stated that it intends to reverse the ‘damaging effects of PACCAR at the first legislative opportunity’.

Litigation funders believe