Intellectual Property Litigation - the Funding Options
Until the 31 March 2013 it was possible to enter a conditional fee agreement ( "CFA" ) whereby the other side would pay any success fee. Similarly, it was possible to look to the other side to pay an after-the-event ( "ATE" ) insurance premium. In his Final Report S ir Rupert Jackson recommended that success fees and ATE insurance premiums should cease to be recoverable from unsuccessful opponents in civil litigation as those costs were "the major contributor to disproportionate costs in civil litigation in England and Wales".. S.44 (4) and s.46 (1) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 which came into effect on 1 April 2013 carried those recommendations into effect. It is, of course, still possible to enter a CFA and take out ATE insurance but any success fee or insurance premium has to be paid by the successful party out of any damages that the successful party may receive. ...