Stewarts and Solomonic are pleased to present their report on the state of commercial fraud litigation in the civil courts of England and Wales.
Stewarts partners Alex Jay and Mo Bhaskaran and senior associate Charlie Mercer examine the recent trends and analyse the data on the volume and key features of fraud claims.
In addition, this year we focus on the role of litigation funding in fraud disputes through conversations with leading funders and insurers.
Trends in fraud litigation – summary
Our report comes against a background of a continuing high level of fraud in UK society. The Office for National Statistics’ latest crime statistics (running to the year ending September 2025) record an estimated 4.2 million fraud incidents, with a 19% increase in bank and credit account fraud, the most prevalent category (albeit there was no statistically significant change overall compared with the previous year).
In our day-to-day practice, we see a number of key themes:
- London’s continued place as a centre of major international disputes
- a continued focus on litigation against intermediaries and professional services advisors, including Quincecare-type claims, on which Stewarts acts in some of the leading cases
- increasingly sophisticated use of technology in fraud, and
- a concern for where future fraud litigation may emerge, be that in the private credit market, from wider market corrections due to AI-driven overvaluation or from the new “failure to prevent fraud” offence introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, in force since September 2025.
We take a deeper dive into these and other key trends in the report.
The headlines
- Volume: the number of fraud claims issued and judgments given remains proportionately high.
- Preferred courts: the general King’s Bench Division continues to be the most popular court, with the Circuit Commercial Court’s share increasing significantly. The Commercial Court and Business List continue to hold a significant combined share at 42%.
- Factual subject matter: banking and finance claims continue to dominate, with technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) and real estate also scoring highly.
- Litigation funding: we look at the key trends and how funding plays an important role in fraud disputes.
- Recent developments: 2025 saw important decisions from the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, as well as the continued evolution of technology as an instrument for fraud and a further consultation by the Hague Conference on Private International Law regarding the protection of parallel and related proceedings in cross-border litigation.
A focus on funding
As part of this year’s report, we are focusing on the role of funding in fraud disputes.
Litigation funding emerged seriously in England in the 1990s. However, its role and credibility increased from the 2000s as a result of several developments, including an increasing number of litigation funders and brokers entering the market and major litigation practices using funding for their clients. For commercial litigation, the market is now well-developed, with cases commonly involving some form of funding and numerous participants competing for involvement.
Funders can play a particularly important role in fraud disputes. These types of claims can benefit from external backing, given that they are often factually and procedurally complex, multi-party, multi-jurisdictional and hard-fought, and that they can face enforcement challenges. Funding arrangements are also routinely coupled with after-the-event (ATE) insurance to protect claimants against adverse costs orders and any cross-undertakings in damages given in support of worldwide freezing orders.
We explore various perspectives through our conversations with Charles Jeffery at Jeffery Capital, Erik Bomans at Deminor Litigation Funding, Lucas Arnold at Harbour and our own Risk and Funding Partner, Julian Chamberlayne. We have also sought an insurer’s perspective from Alan Pratten at Gallagher, with whom Stewarts renewed its groundbreaking insurance facility, Stewarts Litigate, in 2026.
Get in touch
You can find further information regarding our expertise, experience and team on our Fraud page.
