Litigation Financing News

Centro Retail Australia (CRF), formed from the mall manager’s reorganization, had the biggest gain in more than four months in Sydney trading after agreeing to a A$200 million ($201 million) settlement in a shareholder suit.

A leading American legal advocate has warned Australian lawmakers that litigation funders are not interested in access to justice.   Lisa Rickard, the vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce and president of the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), was visiting Australia this week. She told Lawyers Weekly that while lawyers are concerned to act in the best interests of their clients, litigation funders don’t share the same concerns about access to justice.

The first known brand-share between a barristers’ chambers and a solicitors’ firm in the UK will begin operating on Monday, offering clients legal services on a fixed-price contract rather than charging by the hour or on a project basis.

Professional do-gooder Kerry Kennedy — Gov. Cuomo’s ex-wife and the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy — has called the oil-drilled rain forests of Ecuador “the biggest corporate environmental disaster on the face of the Earth, in the history of the world.”

A new study shows that the market for litigation funding, otherwise known as third party funding, is firmly established for commercial disputes in the UK.