When I made the move from being an insolvency lawyer in private
practice to working in litigation funding, being a firm advocate of
funding myself, I was surprised at the level of scepticism with
which I was met from insolvency practitioners especially. One
former client in particular told me that he held funders in low
regard because they only ever cherry picked the best cases.
Was he right about that? Well, probably yes, but can you blame
funders for this? There have been a number of cases recently which
have put funders firmly in the firing line when it comes to third
party costs orders and applications for security for costs. Funders
are no different from any other investors in that before committing
their money they need to be reasonably satisfied that they are
going to make a return on their investment. Litigation funding is
after all intended to be an investment, not a gamble. As such
thorough due diligence is essential and the development of case law
in this
