Litigation crowdfunding has the potential to take the already serious ethical and practical problems with litigation funding and multiply them by injecting dozens – perhaps hundreds – of mystery investors in civil lawsuits. In the interest of consumers, decision makers must not allow this trend to continue unchecked.
London law Firm Mischon de Reya has teamed up with litigation funder Harbor to create a £150 million litigation funding arm, reports the Law Society Gazette.
“[P]atchy regulation coupled with fertile ground for conflicts adds up to a troubling outlook that needs more scrutiny.”
For litigation funder Burford Capital, “accounting is a fraught topic,” reports the Financial Times.
On Wednesday, August 18, a London court ruled that a £10 Billion class action against Mastercard can now go ahead on behalf of 46 million British consumers. If the claim is successful, claimants’ lawyers and litigation funders stand to gain a substantial sum.
According to an expert analysis in Law 360 class actions are on the rise in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe. Third party litigation funding is a significant driver.
For the first time ever, the value of court cases and capital held by the top UK litigation funders has reached £2 billion, reports City AM. The litigation funding market in the UK has quadrupled since 2015. This data is based on research by British law firm RPC.
This week, an Australian judge took a $4 million axe to what he called one of the “worst” proposed class action settlements he’s ever seen. Justice Bernard Murphy said the portion going to the lawyers from Quinn Emanuel and the litigation funder Vannin Captial in a Bank of Queensland class action settlement was “disproportionate” to the amount going to the class.
A Mastercard spokesman told The Telegraph that the huge class action lawsuit revived by the UK Court of Appeal “is completely unsuitable to be brought under the collective actions regime.” The UK Supreme Court announced last week that it will hear the company’s challenge to the £14 billion ($17.1 billion) class action.
In a Law Society Gazette commentary piece, Lisa A. Rickard, the president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, said a case potentially before the UK Supreme Court is the only thing separating the UK legal system from a “US-style litigation monster”. Merricks v. Mastercard, a £14 billion collective action lawsuit, represents the first true test of the Consumer Rights Act of 2015, which created a collective action mechanism in the UK.
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