Irish High Court's First Engagement With Litigation Funding

The Defendants in the ongoing Persona litigation (Persona Digital Telephony Ltd & Anor v Minister for Public Enterprise, & Ors [2015] IEHC 457) were successful in their recent application to the High Court seeking disclosure of the litigation funding agreement (the "Funding Agreement") which the Plaintiffs entered into with Harbour Fund III Limited Partnership ("Harbour"), a specialist litigation funding company. However, in the interests of ensuring the Plaintiffs' rights in the litigation were not irreparably damaged, the Court ordered that the Plaintiffs were entitled to redact specified key elements of the Funding Agreement.

The Plaintiffs, Persona Digital Telephony Ltd ("Persona") and Sigma Wireless Networks Limited ("Sigma"), were unsuccessful applicants in the competition for Ireland's second GSM mobile telephone licence in 1996. Persona and Sigma are suing the State for damages on the basis that the competition was unfairly conducted. As the Plaintiffs are impecunious, allegedly as a result of the Defendants' wrongdoing, they entered into the...