Have you noticed that more than half of the British lawyers in the country are using third party litigation funding? The numbers are real and show how this type of funding is helping the legal system in the United Kingdom, where the Jackson reforms came into force on the 1st of April 2013. These reforms changed a lot of rules in this field and although they were primarily aimed at personal injury litigation, the document has also positively affected the commercial litigation area.
The alterations proposed by Lord Justice Jackson deal with how litigation is funded, conducted and, especially, how the costs are dealt with. Considered the biggest review of civil procedure in England and Wales – at least, since Lord Woolf’s “Access to Justice Report” released in 1996 –, Jackson’s “Civil Litigation Costs Report” from January 2010 was enlightening, to say the least. The complete report studied and exposed the numbers and data, proposing a number of important recommendations that should be applied to the system. These recommendations resulted in the reform recently approved and, consequently, in huge changes to this civil procedure.
According to the Jackson Report, its main objective was “to promote access to justice as a whole by making the costs of litigation more proportionate”. Is the British legal system now headed that way? Our infographic studies that exact question, hoping that with time the reforms can make the dispute process quicker and easier. Well, we know one thing for sure: whether the Jackson Reforms had been implemented or not, litigation funding is inevitable and essential to the system and to the citizens, providing a risk free alternative for the client and for the lawyer. Ready to know more about the data we have for you? Dip your toes in our infographic and absorb some legal knowledge.