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Litigation funding

The Law Society has launched a consultation on a number of issues about funding civil litigation, in particular contingency fees and third party funding of actions. 

Recent Limitation Act casesTwo cases which dealt with the exercise of judicial discretion under section 33 of the Limitation Act 1980 were dealt with as conjoined appeals in the Court of Appeal last month. In the case of Cain, the delay in issuing amounted to one day, but the judge in the lower court had refused to exercise his discretion in favour of the claimant. In contrast, in the second case of McKay, a delay of one year was held not to be prejudicial to the defendant.  The Court of Appeal explained its views on how the issue of prejudice based on the loss of the limitation defence should be considered by the courts, and came to a common sense approach based on the principle that the exercise of discretion should be fair and just in all circumstances. The mere loss of the defence under section 11 Limitation Act was not, per se, prejudicial. 

APIL has prepared a short briefing note on the Court of Appeal decision, which can be accessed in the APIL Practice section of Information Exchange on the APIL website.