Maintenance and Champerty Ryan Fitz Gerald SolicitorManaging Director

Maintenance and Champerty Ryan Fitz. Gerald Solicitor/Managing Director 087 275 1463 ryan@dfglegalcosts. ie

Maintenance • is the intermeddling of a disinterested party to encourage a lawsuit. © DFG Legal Costs Accountants

Champerty • Is an illegal agreement in which a person with no previous interest in a lawsuit finances it with a view to sharing the disputed property if the suit succeeds. © DFG Legal Costs Accountants

Maintenance and Embracery Act 1634 • provides that all statutes heretofore made in England concerning maintenance, champerty and embracery, or any of them now standing and being in their full strength and force, shall be put in due execution in this realme of Ireland. © DFG Legal Costs Accountants

• In 2015 Persona, which lost to Esat Digifone in a 1997 telecoms bidding process criticised by the Moriarty Tribunal, applied to launch a lawsuit against those involved in the 1997 bidding, to be funded by a UK company, Harbour Litigation Funding, in return for part of any damages awarded. [23][24] In 2016, the High Court ruled that such third-party funding constituted champerty prohibited by the 1634 act; Persona said it would have to drop the case, being unable to afford the estimated € 10 million expenses. © DFG Legal Costs Accountants

What does this mean? • Firstly, do not let a third party fund your Client’s case. • If you are partially funding your Client’s case, do not make any sort of arrangement for a percentage of the award. • Be careful thatany Costs insurance agreements do not fall a foul of the law on Maintenance and Champerty. © DFG Legal Costs Accountants

Ryan Fitz. Gerald Solicitor/Managing Director 087 275 1463 ryan@dfglegalcosts. ie DFG Legal Costs Accountants, Suite 125, The Capel Building, St. Marys Abbey, Dublin 7 © DFG Legal Costs Accountants