Litigation funding - a world gone mad or sensible reform? The Productivity Commission proposed reforms

Timely and affordable access to justice is critical in facilitating the efficient and fair resolution of civil disputes. As things presently stand in Australia, the cost of litigation prevents many individuals, and organisations, from accessing courts. Even alternative dispute resolution is often cost prohibitive.

Enter the litigation funding market, which has developed rapidly as a way of helping people overcome the cost barriers to accessing the courts.

In Australia, the funding market is dominated by a number of large, unregulated third party funders who usually enter into arrangements whereby they receive an agreed share of any amount recovered by the party they fund.

Somewhat controversially, lawyers and law firms are prohibited from entering these types of fee arrangements, known as contingency fees. Many have tried to find creative ways to get around the prohibition— seeking to use litigation funding in which they have a financial interest to finance