The UK Government is set to reverse a Supreme Court decision on litigation funding in order to allow sub-postmasters to take the Post Office to court.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk told the paper that he planned “at the first legislative opportunity” to reverse “the damaging effects” of a Supreme Court ruling last year.
Back in July, the highest court in the UK ruled that litigation funding agreements (LFA) did not constitute a damages-based agreement. The latter needs to meet certain conditions to be enforceable and most LFAs currently do not meet these conditions. The decision put the litigation funding sector into limbo.
The decision came from the PACCAR case which is one of the parties in a case against five major European manufacturing groups that are facing collective claims launched by the Road Haulage Association and UK Trucks Claim over allegations of breaches of competition law.
Chalk told the Financial Times in a statement: “I’m proud of the UK’s reputation as the heart of global legal services and I want to keep it that way. That’s why the government will be reversing the damaging effects of PACCAR at the first legislative opportunity.”
This comes on the back of former sub-postmaster and founder of the Justice for sub-postmasters Alliance, Alan Bates opinion piece for the paper, where he highlighted that litigation funding was an “essential financing tool” in his case against the Post Office. He pointed out that the PACCAR judgment has put litigation funding into “jeopardy”.
The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.
