JV sees emergence of new litigation funder

02 November 2009 | By Katy Dowell

Legal expenses insurer 1st Class Legal has joined forces with Litigation Solutions to launch the Isle of Man-domiciled fund with ambitions to revolutionise how the sector operates.

Funding will be made available to all financial levels of claims and claimants will be asked to pay a flat fee together with a daily interest rate, which will be halted on repayment. Under the traditional model funders take a proportion of any payout.

According to 1st Class Legal chief executive Bob Gordon, the aim is to provide clients with more certainty about the potential costs involved with funding for conditional fee arrangements. He said it would provide “clear, open and straightforward means of enabling more cases to get off the ground”.

A series of litigation funding vehicles has been launched over the past 12 months. The majority, however, have been targeted at US litigation.