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The insider: 29 March & 5 April 2024

29 March 2024 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 8065 / Categories: Opinion , Litigation funding , In Court
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Litigation funders rejoice as the Lords step in to solve their woes. Dominic Regan serves up the inside story on this, as well as some particularly thrilling judgments

Rejoice! On 19 March the Litigation Funding Agreements (Enforceability) Bill was introduced in the House of Lords (HL Bill 56). Litigation funders and those whom they backed had a fit of the vapours after the Supreme Court judgment last summer in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others [2023] UKSC 28, [2023] 4 All ER 675. By a majority of four to one it decided that litigation funding agreements (LFAs) in which the fees of the funder were calculated by reference to a cut of the damages recovered were in law damages-based agreements (DBAs). The dissentient was Lady Rose, the one member of the court with first-hand experience of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), having chaired it from 2005 to 2013, and again from 2015 to 2019.

The best-known case funded in

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Birketts—trainee cohort

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The Court of Protection has ruled in Macpherson v Sunderland City Council that capacity must be presumed unless clearly rebutted. In this week's NLJ, Sam Karim KC and Sophie Hurst of Kings Chambers dissect the judgment and set out practical guidance for advisers faced with issues relating to retrospective capacity and/or assessments without an examination
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
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