Stewarts is pleased to announce the launch of our Costs and Funding Disputes service, leveraging the expertise of our litigation, costs and insurance specialists to advise litigants, funders, law firms or insurers.

The Costs and Funding team will focus on high-value, complex disputes relating to legal costs, litigation funding and legal expenses insurance.

Even when another firm has represented parties in substantive litigation, or litigation funders in drafting the original fee or funding agreements, it can often be advisable or necessary to seek independent advice and representation if disputes or potential conflicts of interest arise.

We also advise parties to high-value disputes and assist them to secure optimal terms for alternative funding arrangements, whether with their lawyers, third-party litigation funders or insurers.

Julian Chamberlayne, Risk and Funding Partner, says: “As the litigation landscape has evolved in recent years, we have seen numerous significant disputes between claimants, their lawyers and the funders backing their claims. Our new team brings together deep subject matter expertise of commercial litigators, policyholder disputes specialists and cost lawyers to advise clients on complex issues arising from legal costs and funding arrangements.”

Stewarts has been a leader in the field of costs and funding for over 25 years and has worked on high-value and complex disputes for its clients, including litigation funders, and for itself.

We were early adopters of conditional fee agreements (CFA), after the event (ATE) insurance, third party litigation funding and damages based agreements (DBA). We regularly receive complimentary feedback from litigation funders and ATE insurers that our approach to securing the best terms for our clients is the most rigorous they have experienced. We have also been prominent in campaigning for law reform in relation to cost and funding issues to enhance options for our clients.”