Third Party Funding A Matter For Legislature - Supreme Court Confirms Old Parameters Still Apply

In a recent Supreme Court decision, which considered whether third party litigation funding is permissible in Ireland, the Court has indicated that developments in relation to such funding arrangements are a matter for the legislature to decide.

In what was an eagerly awaited judgment, the Supreme Court in Persona Digital Telephony Ltd and another v The Minister for Public Enterprise and others 1 dismissed the plaintiffs' appeal by a majority decision and in so doing, upheld a centuries-old prohibition on litigation funding by a third party in return for a share of the proceeds.

High Court Decision

In what was the first Irish case to directly concern the acceptability of third-party funding, the plaintiff sought a declaration that the proposed funding arrangement (whereby a UK company was willing to provide litigation funding in return for a share of the proceeds, should the plaintiff be successful), was not in contravention of the principles of...