What On Earth Is Litigation Funding?

Like many people, I often use Christmas as an opportunity to catch up with old friends and let them know my family and career news. Having told an old university friend that after 23 years in private practice I was now working for a litigation funder, a few days after Christmas I received a LinkedIn invitation from him including, to my surprise, a message asking me "What on earth is litigation funding?". I was surprised by the message because my friend is a practising solicitor, having qualified twenty years ago.

What this shows is that although litigation funding has on numerous occasions received judicial approval over recent years, and is widely used in high value cases, there is still a long way to go before it becomes firmly established in the tool kit of many high street law firms.