Blog

Yesterday the Advocates' Society held its 16th Annual Spring Symposium in Toronto, co-hosted with the American College of Trial Lawyers.

In its recent budget, the federal government proposed the elimination of billed-basis accounting (BBA) for designated professionals.

Last week’s federal budget was touted as the “innovation budget”, and included commitments for clean technology, digital industries and health/bio-sciences. The budget also renewed discussion about where innovation plays a role in the practice of law.

This week Bentham IMF announced the opening of its tenth office, in Houston, Texas. Houston is one of the busiest litigation centres in the U.S., and benefits from Texans’ entrepreneurial approach to business.

Over the last several years, Bentham IMF has found that companies are increasingly interested in exploring litigation funding to help manage their legal spend and the risk associated with litigation.

In recent years, the legal industry has seen a dramatic increase in demand for alternative fee arrangements (AFAs).

Whilst 2016 was a somewhat discombobulating year across the globe, it was also a year of new beginnings, terrific opportunity and achievement.

In the United States, the litigation finance industry is more mature than in Canada; American law firms and clients often use funding to pursue meritorious commercial litigation. At the same time, the U.S. market is evolving quickly. In just five years since Bentham opened its first U.S. office, it represents approximately 50% of our cases worldwide.

While each funder uses a unique set of criteria to assess the potential value of investing in a case, lawyers are likely to find similarities in the factors taken into consideration.

In September, Bentham hosted leading experts, litigators and academics for a roundtable discussion about the role that litigation funding might play in Canada.

In the latest issue of Canadian Business Magazine, Sarah Niedoba explores the growth of litigation funding in Canada.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s Law Reform Commission recommended that the common law principles of maintenance and champerty, which have held force in Hong Kong far longer than other jurisdictions, should no longer apply to arbitration and associated proceedings. This development comes hot on the heels of the promulgation of Singapore’s Civil Law (Amendment) Bill, anticipated to become law by the end of the year, abolishing maintenance and champerty in arbitration and certain other proceedings.

Following the recent decision of the Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan in Schneider v Royal Crown Gold Reserve Inc, six provinces have now set out the guiding principles for approving third-party litigation funding agreements. Although most decisions are in the class action context, they are instructive for general commercial litigation, the core of Bentham IMF’s business in Canada.

Third party litigation funding (TPF) can benefit businesses of all sizes, but small and medium sized companies can find particular value in using TPF for their cases.

In our conversations introducing commercial litigation funding to the Canadian legal market, we are frequently asked about maintenance and champerty. Under current Canadian jurisprudence, third-party funding does not offend the doctrines of maintenance and champerty.

When growing a legal practice, existing clients tend to be the best source of further work. Often, however, lawyers struggle to entice current clients to give them more work.

Law firms exploring strategic growth have a new financing option to consider. By securing funding against a portfolio of three or more commercial litigation cases on a partial contingency basis, firms gain access to capital provided by Bentham.

Working with well-established litigation funders can have unexpected benefits for law firms. Among those benefits are opportunities to receive referrals for new business. In our experience, referral opportunities arise most commonly in the following situations...

Recent surveys of corporate counsel demonstrate that they are looking for three important things from their outside advisors. When law firms don’t respond to these demands, they may lose out on litigation opportunities.

By partnering with a litigation funder, an SME can focus its capital on growth and development, and use the funder’s resources to retain top counsel.