Legal matters rarely lose direction because someone deliberately chooses the wrong destination. More often, they drift. A difficult discussion about quantum is deferred. A gap in the evidence is acknowledged but not resolved. The claimant continues to rely on an outcome the professionals around them no longer consider realistic, but no one wants to be […]
“I’ve seen this before.” Few sentences create confidence as quickly. A lawyer has acted in a similar matter. A barrister has argued the point before. An insurer knows the claim pattern. A litigation funder has invested in the same type of dispute. An investment committee has considered something that looks remarkably familiar. Experience matters. It […]
In litigation funding, some of the worst economic decisions look like wins when they are made. The percentage is lower. The budget is tighter. The legal fee is protected. The capital exposure is reduced. A settlement is rejected because the claim is said to be worth more. The transaction closes and someone walks away believing […]
When payment capacity becomes a substitute for underwriting A prospective client sits across from an attorney and explains what happened. There is an alleged wrong, a loss and, at least in the client’s mind, an outcome the law should correct. Before the matter has been fully examined, another question may already be forming in the […]
A litigation investment that produces a loss is not necessarily evidence of poor underwriting. That proposition is easy to accept in theory and considerably harder to maintain once an investment has consumed several years of management attention, substantial legal expenditure and significant capital. The difficulty is structural. The quality of an investment decision must be […]
Why the Wrong Litigation Team Rarely Looks Wrong at the Beginning At the beginning, the wrong litigation team can look exactly like the right one. The lawyers are highly ranked. Counsel has the right title. The adviser knows the language. The funder has deployed significant capital. The biographies, offices, transactions and awards all appear to confirm the […]
If there is one quality I have learned to value above almost any other in the people I work with, it is this: they are not driven by the need to prove themselves right. They are driven by the need to reach the right outcome. Those people are usually easy to recognise. Their contribution is […]
For most businesses, completing the same work in half the time is an obvious advantage. For a profession that has traditionally sold time, the calculation is less straightforward. Consider three law firms using the same AI tools. Each can review documents faster, test legal propositions sooner and manage more information with fewer manual steps. The […]
In litigation finance, fairness is not measured by how a transaction looks when capital is scarce. It is measured by whether its economics remain defensible once value is realised. Litigation finance is negotiated in the shadow of unequal time. One party has capital, diversification and the ability to decline. The other may have a single […]
Litigation usually begins with a grievance. Litigation funding begins with a question: who pays? That difference explains much of the tension between legal process and funding capital. A claimant arrives with a wrong, a file, a legal theory and, often, an opinion that the claim has merit. The natural first question is whether the claimant […]
Funders do not ask for legal opinions simply because they do not understand the law. In some matters, they may need independent advice, local law input, external validation, or investment committee comfort. But a prospects opinion does more than express a view on merits. In a funding process, it often becomes one of the first […]
In litigation funding, alignment is often reduced to one phrase: Skin in the game. The phrase is useful. A claimant should remain invested in the outcome. A law firm should show conviction. A funder should not carry all the risk while everyone else becomes indifferent to the result. But skin in the game is not […]
One of the quickest ways to make an experienced litigation funder nervous is to present a matter that appears perfect. No weaknesses. No evidential challenges. No procedural concerns. No enforcement risks. No difficult questions. Just confidence. The irony is that the more perfect a matter appears, the more uncomfortable many experienced participants become. Not because […]
The best litigation funding transactions are rarely forced. They are matched. That may sound simple, but much of the friction in litigation funding comes from forgetting it. Funding is often discussed as if the central question is whether a case is good enough. Are the merits strong? Is the quantum attractive? Can the defendant pay? […]
In the legal industry, businesses often believe they are protecting the thing that made them successful. A law firm protects its practice areas. A litigation funder protects its investment model. An insurer protects its policy wording. An adviser protects a particular structure. But in many cases, the thing being protected is not the source of […]
Some good legal claims fail in the funding market not because the claim is weak, but because the wrong capital question was asked at the start. The question is often framed too simply: Can we get litigation funding? That is not always the right starting point. The better question is: What is the legal asset, […]
Why litigation finance needs sharper separation between legal progress, accounting value and recoverable cash. The immediate debate in litigation finance is often about capital: who can raise it, recycle it, preserve it or deploy it. But the harder question is valuation. Capital structure can solve a liquidity problem. It cannot, by itself, solve a confidence […]
In litigation finance, there is no shortage of people who can describe a claim. There are advisers who can summarise pleadings, circulate a case note, identify a funder, forward a judgment, attach a budget, and say the matter has strong merits and significant quantum. That is not difficult. The harder question is whether the legal […]
A cross-border litigation funding opportunity can survive difficult legal merits, uncertain duration, enforcement complexity, and collection risk, only to collapse the moment foreign exchange exposure enters the discussion. The reaction is familiar. A funder sees a claim denominated in an emerging-market currency. Someone models a weakening exchange rate over several years. The projected return compresses. […]
In litigation finance, bad claims are usually rejected early. Weak merits, inflated quantum, poor enforcement prospects, unrealistic duration, adverse costs exposure, or defective evidence are all familiar underwriting problems. Sophisticated funders know how to identify them, price them, or walk away from them. The more difficult risk is not always found in the pleadings. It […]
For many years, litigation funding was explained through the simplest of legal stories: David versus Goliath. A smaller claimant, short of resources, used outside capital to pursue a larger and better-funded defendant. It was an access-to-justice story, and a powerful one. But it is no longer the whole story. A more sophisticated market is now […]
A short while ago, I found myself in a discussion around a portfolio of matters where, on the surface, the usual questions were being asked. Merits. Quantum. Duration. Settlement prospects. Funding appetite. The sorts of questions anyone in this space would expect. But as the conversation unfolded, it became clear that the real difficulty did […]
One of the strangest habits in litigation funding is the way duration is often spoken about as though it were a flaw in the asset itself. A matter takes too long.Enforcement drags.Appeals extend the timeline.Recovery comes in stages rather than in a single event. And suddenly the conclusion is that the asset has become less attractive […]
That is the fault line on which almost every mistake in this market is made. A court may determine that a claimant is owed money. That is a legal conclusion.An investor faces a different question entirely.Can that right be converted into cash, in size, on time, through resistance, delay, appeal, enforcement friction, jurisdictional drag, counterparty […]
A quiet shift in litigation funding that many are missing I’ve noticed a pattern in conversations recently. Not always, but often enough to pay attention. Someone will lean on one of two points. Either:“AI is going to change everything in this space.” Or:“I’ve been doing this for 20–30 years.” On the surface, both are entirely […]
Why early conversations about damages can make or break funding. One of the quieter dynamics in litigation funding does not relate to the merits of a case, the jurisdiction, or even the strength of the evidence. It relates to something more human: expectations. In many disputes, particularly those involving commercial losses, the claimant’s initial view […]
Over the past decade, litigation finance has evolved into a sophisticated global market. Yet one of the most common misconceptions persists: litigation funders are often spoken about as if they all think the same way about risk. In reality, they do not. Behind every fund sits a different pool of capital, different investor expectations, and […]
Understanding the “Opportunity Funnel”, and How to Stay Inside It Most claimants believe litigation funding is about persuading a funder that their case is strong. In reality, funding decisions are rarely made that way. Institutional litigation funders operate more like investment managers than traditional financiers. They review large numbers of potential opportunities each year but ultimately deploy […]
Litigation funders pride themselves on sophisticated underwriting: merits probability, quantum modelling, duration sensitivity, counsel selection, enforcement pathways. Yet when opportunities arise in emerging markets, particularly where the counterparty is sovereign-linked, many investment committees default to a blunt conclusion: “Too much political risk.” At the same time, capital continues to deploy aggressively into developed markets where […]
Most law firms believe they understand risk. They assess prospects.They evaluate merits.They model likely costs.They price their time. But there is one category of risk that is routinely misunderstood, or worse, completely unpriced. Balance sheet risk. And that is where litigation funding and ATE insurance fundamentally change the equation. The Silent Risk Law Firms Carry […]
Litigation finance is no longer peripheral. It is reshaping how many firms structure risk, pricing, and growth. Some firms have used it to expand profitably. Others have become economically dependent. The difference lies in governance. How Funding Can Strengthen Firm Economics When integrated strategically, litigation finance enables firms to: Offer hybrid and contingency fees Expand […]
After-the-Event (ATE) insurance and litigation funding are increasingly used together in high-value disputes. When deployed correctly, they form an effective risk-management framework. When misused, they create false confidence. The most dangerous misconception in litigation finance is that ATE and funding compensate for weak merits. They do not. They only reallocate risk. What ATE Insurance Is […]
For decades, law firms have measured success in hours billed, not outcomes achieved. That model worked, until it didn’t. Today, many firms feel busy, stretched, and under constant pricing pressure, yet partner profitability is flat or declining. Talent is leaving earlier. Clients are pushing back harder. Technology is compressing time. And still, most firms are […]
In litigation, we often talk about winning as if it were self-evident. Judgment in your client’s favour.Costs awarded.Precedent set. But there is an uncomfortable reality that many lawyers only see in hindsight: A claimant can win the litigation and still lose financially. When a case consumes years of capital, creates existential cost exposure, or leaves a business […]
For many law firms, especially those running complex commercial, insolvency, class action, or high-value private litigation, the constraint is no longer legal capability. It is balance-sheet capacity, cash-flow volatility, and risk concentration. Non-recourse litigation funding and After-the-Event (ATE) insurance have moved well beyond niche tools. Used strategically, they are now core financial instruments that allow […]
Litigation funding has become an essential tool for law firms seeking to pursue complex, high-value disputes without carrying the full financial risk on their own balance sheets. In theory, the market is well-capitalised and actively looking for deployable cases. In practice, however, many lawyers still struggle to secure funding, even for claims they believe are […]
Litigation today is not only a legal exercise; it is a financial event that can materially affect a company’s balance sheet, cash flow, and risk profile. For corporate claimants and their legal representatives, After-the-Event (ATE) insurance and litigation funding have become indispensable tools for managing the financial uncertainty inherent in disputes. Together, these instruments convert […]
Insolvency practitioners (IPs) across the world face significant challenges when handling distressed companies, ranging from asset recovery and the pursuit of claims to maximising returns for creditors. Many insolvencies involve complex disputes such as director misconduct, fraudulent transactions, or asset misappropriation, all of which require strategic and often costly litigation. However, the high financial barriers associated […]
For many claimants, winning a lawsuit is only half the battle. A favourable judgment on paper doesn’t immediately translate into money in the bank. Enforcing judgments can be lengthy, complex, and expensive—particularly when the defendant resists payment or moves assets to avoid enforcement. This is where judgment monetisation comes into play. What is Judgment Monetisation? Judgment monetisation […]
Litigation funding, also known as legal financing or third-party litigation funding, is a mechanism through which a third party provides financial support to a litigant or law firm in exchange for a portion of the settlement or judgment. This is particularly useful for individuals or businesses involved in expensive legal battles. Below are the key […]
Introduction Litigation can be a costly and time-consuming process, making it difficult for individuals and businesses to pursue legal claims, even when they have a strong case. Litigation funding—also known as legal financing—offers a solution by providing financial assistance to claimants in exchange for a share of the potential settlement or judgment. This guide will […]
Litigation funders look for claims that have a strong chance of success, clear legal merit, and high potential damages or settlements. Here are some of the best types of claims for litigation funding: 1. Commercial Litigation Breach of Contract – Strong claims with clear contractual obligations and damages. Business Torts – Fraud, misrepresentation, or tortious […]
In today’s fast-paced innovation landscape, patent disputes have become a common occurrence as companies seek to protect their intellectual property (IP) rights. However, pursuing or defending a patent dispute can be exceptionally costly and time-consuming, often placing significant financial strain on companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual inventors. Litigation funding, an arrangement […]
In today’s competitive business environment, companies often face complex disputes that may require extensive legal intervention. However, pursuing or defending a claim can be financially daunting, especially given the high cost of legal proceedings. This is where litigation funding, also known as third-party funding, comes into play. Litigation funding involves a third-party investor (often a […]
ATE insurance operates as a safeguard against the financial risks that litigation imposes. Typically, the policy will cover: Adverse Costs: If the claimant loses, ATE insurance will cover the costs awarded to the opposing party. Own Disbursements: This includes court fees, expert witness fees, and other expenses incurred during the litigation process. Own Attorney Fees: […]
Introduction In South Africa, the role of Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) has become crucial, especially in the context of the financial distress many businesses face. Business rescue, governed by Chapter 6 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008, aims to provide a lifeline for companies by restructuring their operations and financial obligations. However, this process […]
Litigation funders carefully evaluate potential claims before agreeing to provide financing, as they assume a significant financial risk in the outcome. Here are the key factors they consider when assessing a claim for funding: 1. Merits of the Case Strong Legal Basis: Funders look for cases that have a strong legal foundation and a high […]
The risks and costs involved in patent litigation are incredibly high, and this is a good reason that patent disputes are perfect for litigation funding. Here’s a fun fact: Patent litigation was one of the first civil litigation areas that adopted litigation funding. But why are the costs for fighting patent infringements so high? The […]
The digital age we live in makes copying artists’ hard work easy and proving copyright infringement tricky. Thanks to digital media, there is a huge market for content, and the ability to copy and distribute content, without paying the original artists, is big business. Although there are digital tools that can help detect when specific […]
Litigation is expensive. Access to courts requires time, money, and resources. And whether you are an individual or a small or large company, litigation costs are booked as expenses on the income statement. This makes protecting your company and keeping the budget in the green extremely tricky. So, to keep costs off the balance sheet, […]
No one likes the person constantly nagging about the cost of things; what a buzz kill. But without that person, a Pricing Officer, projects wouldn’t meet budgets, firms wouldn’t have enough money to pay their employees, and you wouldn’t have a job. A Pricing Officer is appointed to cost a project and determine what resources […]
As we saw in our previous blog, How Litigation Funding Can be a Transformative Tool for General Counsel https://wilddog.mu/how-litigation-funding-can-be-a-transformative-tool-for-general-counsel/ in which, ultimately, litigation funding permits companies the ability to hedge some of their risk, ensuring that they will be in a better position if the claim is successful, but in no worse position if their […]
While early trends among those seeking litigation funding were concentrated on smaller claimants (companies) pitted against larger, more well-resourced defendants (companies), an increasing number of well-resourced claimants (companies), are now availing themselves of litigation funding to support their companies litigation strategies. Regardless of the companies size or financial resources, partnering with a litigation funder is […]
All legal contracts must be reviewed and understood in their entirety, and a Litigation Funding Agreement is no different. Getting to the point of having a Litigation Funding Agreement ready and in your lap may have felt like a long and tedious road. And, without putting a damper on things, reviewing the Litigation Funding Agreement […]
Underwriting is a crucial component of the litigation funding process. It is the process by which the funder will be informed of their risk and will dictate whether or not they will decide to take on the funding for a lawsuit. Here’s an interesting fact: The term ‘underwriting’ is taken from how the process was […]
Like some of your favorite crime shows, where you follow an intelligent and astute investigator who always manages to piece the puzzle together when no one else can, you can think similarly of a litigation funder. The role of the litigation funder starts with investigating the claim, the claimant, the legal counsel, and even the […]
Are you up to your eyeballs in legal expenses and just can’t see the way forward? Do you have a case but not the means or risk appetite to pursue it? Can your funds weather a lengthy litigation or arbitration process? Litigation finance can help you. We’ve all heard the stories. Legal fees are expensive, […]
The essential principle of a Litigation Funding Agreement (LFA) between a litigant or his or her legal representative and a third party who finances the litigation for reward, is consistent with the constitutional values underlying freedom of contract in South Africa. Certain principles (De Bruyn v Steinhoff International Holdings NV 2020 JDR 1405 (GJ) at [82]) have […]