Litigation funding is now a well-established business in the Australian legal marketplace. You will regularly see newspaper reports about significant legal actions that have been underwritten by litigation funders. These funders pay the costs to take an action to hearing and usually pay adverse costs if your case is unsuccessful. Litigation funding is not an open cheque book. The funder’s commitment is generally restricted to an agreed legal budget that the claimant’s solicitors are expected to commit to so that funding is not exhausted before the claim is concluded.

ln return litigation funders seek a commercial percentage of the recovery sum from a claimant’s settlement or court judgment in your favour. lf the claimant loses the funder commonly bears the total costs. The funder looks for a return that reflects the risks taken.

To move forward a claimant will usually require a well prepared legal brief of the action identifying the nature of the action, an assessment of damages and usually a barrister’s opinion of the merits of the case. Compiling a legal brief is an expensive process and we know that many claimants don’t have the funds to even instruct a lawyer to present their case for funding review.

In this situation, good claims are not being pursued because of the initial expense required to determine whether or not an action is eligible for funding, and if suitable, which funder is the best to approach.

Litigation Funding Solutions has the necessary case selection skills, experience and relationships with leading litigation funders operating in Australia and overseas, to assist and add value to this process.