Blog

A False Start to Victoria's Group Costs Order Regime

Plaintiff law firms have been eagerly awaiting a decision to be handed in respect of Victoria’s group costs order legislation, which permits a plaintiff’s solicitor to be remunerated by reference to a percentage of any award or settlement obtained. The Supreme Court of Victoria has now published its first decision in respect of the group costs regime, however, has the wait been worthwhile?

Champerty pops up again!

Champerty pops up again! Is it time to put the maintenance and champerty rules to the test? Senior Investment Manager, Jeremy Marshall shares his views.

Maintenance and Champerty in Canada

Discussions about third-party funding often raise questions about the common law doctrines of maintenance and champerty. This article sets out how third-party funding fits into the Canadian legal landscape, in light of the history and evolution of maintenance and champerty.

'Super priority' rescue finance in Singapore

In what may prove to be a landmark decision for both of Singapore’s insolvency and litigation finance regimes, the Singapore High Court (HC) has ordered that Omni Bridgeway’s financing of an undisclosed private international arbitration be given super priority status in the context of a corporate restructuring.

Statutory price cap proposal: leaving victims of wrongdoing with nowhere to go

The Australian Government is considering the merits of legislating a minimum return to group members in funded class actions, potentially as high as 70 per cent of gross proceeds. The introduction of a 70 per cent minimum would be a completely arbitrary measure and is not supported by reference to any analysis of the negative implications for the funding of class actions or the risks being assumed by litigation funders.

Did you read the last NDA you signed?

Did you read the last NDA you signed? Jeremy Marshall discusses the important UK Supreme Court decision in Harcus Sinclair LLP v Your Lawyers Limited and others and explains why an automatic e-signature could be very costly for lawyers and funders alike.

Canada Modernizes its Model Bilateral Investment Treaty

We take a deep dive into Canada’s amendments to its Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement Model ("model FIPA"). For foreign investors or parties bringing claims under new investment treaties, we discuss the key procedural and substantive changes.

The love-hate relationship with audit negligence

With the Supreme Court recently handing down its decision in Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton LLP and Khan v Meadows, Omni Bridgeway’s Jeremy Marshall highlights the challenges associated with litigation funding cases relating to audit negligence.

Third-party funding in the MENA region

The international market for third-party funding is growing rapidly, driven by the increased use, cost, and complexity of international arbitration, together with increasing demands on arbitration parties and practitioners to manage the associated costs and risks and is gradually becoming more accepted in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Explosion? What explosion? The truth about class actions

So much for the so-called ‘explosion’ in shareholder class actions backed by unscrupulous litigation funders. This claim, used liberally by sections of corporate Australia and their US big business allies to justify self-serving attacks on the litigation funding industry, was always based on dubious accounting. But now we have incontestable evidence that the ‘explosion’ is nothing more than a myth.