Third Party Litigation Funding (TPLF) of Shareholder Litigation

Abstract

The most recent development in litigation funding industry is third party litigation funding (TPLF), where an external investor funds the client to commence a civil lawsuit. In recent years, as a growing industry, the TPLF has drawn lots of attention from policymakers, legal practitioners, scholars and potential plaintiffs. Actually, most of opinions hold that TPLF is helpful to solve funding problems with civil litigation, but it should be applied cautiously. Up till now, TPLF has notably spread in Australia and in some European countries (for instance, Austria, Germany, Ireland and the UK). Also in the US, TPLF is a fast-growing industry and is playing an increasingly visible role in financing civil litigation.