Annecto Legal Bristol Law Society Newsletter Article (30^th May 2022 Edition):

Major obstacles to any individual or business in pursuing a dispute through the courts are cost and risk: The cost of funding your own legal team and then the risk of losing and having to pay your opponent’s costs too. 

It stands to reason those lawyers who solve these problems for clients will likely secure more business and be more successful, and there are various retainer, insurance and funding products in the market that allow clients to mitigate cost and risk. 

Flexible retainer options can include fixed fees, perhaps split into phases of a dispute, conditional fee agreements (CFAs) or damages-based agreements (DBAs). There are also various hybrids such as discounted-CFAs where a client pays a lower rate during a dispute but can recover a higher rate from the paying party upon successful conclusion of a claim (this is different to non-recoverable success fees).

Insurance can be used to cost-effectively reduce adverse costs risk, defeat security for costs applications or provide cross-undertakings for injunctions, as well as many other scenarios. Premiums are no longer recoverable inter partes but it is still common for premiums to be deferred until the successful conclusion of a claim, thereby making them a valuable tool that doesn’t require large upfront investment by clients.

Non-recourse funding provided by third parties is another way to reduce the costs and risks of a dispute for clients, whilst providing cash-flow for law firms and allowing cases to proceed at pace (rather than being hampered by a lack of funds). Contrary to popular belief, there are scores of funders in the market, and they invest in everything from disbursement funding (sometimes just court fees) all the way to huge investments in complex disputes. We’ve handled cases worth hundreds of thousands in damages all the way to multi-billion-pound disputes.

As part of the onboarding process for clients in can be useful to present them with options about funding and insurance so that they can make an informed choice about how best to proceed, and this ensure that solicitors are meeting their professional obligations to clients, as well as increasing the likelihood that a client can and will proceed with a case.

Annecto Legal are one of the UK’s leading ATE and Litigation Funding Brokers. Annecto provides no-obligation consultations around new cases and existing claims so that you can provide your client with clear advice around on potential funding and insurance options on any dispute. Annecto also offer in-house ATE and Litigation Funding training at no cost.

Should you wish to discuss a case or wish to arrange in-house ATE and Funding training please contact:

David Law (t) 07540 303035 (e) david.law@annectolegal.co.uk