Third Party Funding or Litigation Funding - Sixth Lecture In The Civil Litigation Costs Review Implementation Programme

1.1 I am delighted to attend this gathering of litigation funders and others, to mark the launch of the new Code of Conduct. Under Lamb’s classification, litigation funders would very roughly fall into the second category of humanity. In order not to disrupt such a jovial occasion, I shall hand down this lecture in writing for those who wish to read it over their glass of wine, and confine my oral presentation to a brief synopsis of the lecture.

1.2 This lecture. This is the sixth lecture in the present series. The previous five lectures can all be accessed on the Judiciary website.3 This lecture, like the previous ones, has paragraph numbers for ease of cross-reference.

1.3 Terminology. The title of this lecture is somewhat longwinded, because the nomenclature has recently changed. What used to be called "third party funding" is now more commonly called "litigation funding". I shall use the latter term in this lecture, although "third party funding" was the term used in my two reports. I shall refer to the Civil Litigation Costs Review as "the Costs Review". I shall refer to the Costs Review Preliminary Report as "the Preliminary Report" and the Costs Review Final Report as "the Final Report". I shall use the abbreviation "CFA" for conditional fee agreement.