Maurice MacSweeney explains the main elements funders take into consideration
- There are four factors funders look at when assessing whether or not they are going to fund a case.
- While lawyers will often start by looking at merits, a litigation funder’s primary concern is to recover its investment, and wherever possible also obtain a return on that investment.
- Lawyers should always be realistic and conservative about both the value of the case and the budget needed to bring it to a successful conclusion.
Getting a litigation funder to support a case may seem like a daunting task but in reality there’s no great mystery to how they review cases. In the first instance just pick up the phone to your funder to explain the case, and they should quickly give you a sense whether the claim is one which could potentially be investible. A quick conversation early on, even on a no names basis, can save a lot of unnecessary work later. If you don’t know funders, any member of the Association of Litigation Funders of England and Wales
