Litigation Funding Agreements (Enforceability) Bill 2024 - The Latest

Introduction

The Litigation Funding Agreements (Enforceability) Bill 2024 is urgently needed to remedy the Supreme Court’s decision R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others, which has had the single most catastrophic consequences for litigation funding than any other previous court decision.

The Supreme Court, by a majority, decided that a litigation funding agreement (‘LFA’) under which the funder is to receive a percentage of any damages recovered by the funded party, is a damages based agreement (‘DBA’) within the meaning of s58AA of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. This decision renders all such funding arrangements unenforceable.

Realising the calamity of this decision, the Government acted with the speed necessary to overcome the position resulting from the Supreme Court’s decision.

This virtual classroom seminar will review the decision of the Supreme Court, its ramifications for litigation funding and examine the proposed Bill and how this will operate in practice. This live session will also look at the much anticipated review of litigation funding by the CJC which had aimed to provide an interim report by summer 2024, and a full report by summer 2025.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive course will cover the following:

• Since the new Bill was due to pass into law in summer 2024, what are the implications with this being shelved after Parliament was dissolved for the election, and will the Bill return to Parliament and in the same form post-election?
• How the proposed Bill will be applied in its current form and in practice for litigators. And in the meantime:
• How LFA’s were previously viewed, especially by Lord Justice Jackson in his reforms and why this decision is at odds with the draft Damages Based Agreements Regulations 2019, which the government failed to introduce
• The analysis and decision by the majority and examining the lengthy dissenting decision given by Lady Rose
• How the calculation of the funder’s reward in the LFA is critical
• Is this decision retrospective and what should you do about existing LFAs in cases yet to be resolved?

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.