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Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

163: After Clause 53, insert the following new Clause— ““Third party litigation funding (1) A third party litigation funding agreement which satisfies all of the conditions applicable to it by virtue of this section shall not be unenforceable by reason only of it being a third party litigation funding agreement; but any other third party litigation funding agreement shall be unenforceable. (2) A third party litigation funding agreement is an agreement under which a third party (““the funder””) agrees to fund (in whole or in part) the provision of advocacy or litigation services to another person (““the litigant””) by a person other than the funder in exchange for remuneration. (3) For the purposes of subsection (2), ““remuneration”” includes— (a) a payment or any other transfer of value representing or calculated by reference to the value of a judgment or settlement; and (b) an assignment of the proceeds (in whole or in part) of any judgment or settlement. (4) The following conditions are applicable to a third party litigation funding agreement— (a) it must be in writing; (b) it must not relate to— (i) proceedings which by virtue of section 58A(1) and (2) of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 cannot be the subject of an enforceable conditional fee agreement; (ii) a multi-party action, representative action or any proceedings which are the subject of a group litigation order; or (iii) any other proceedings of a description prescribed by the Lord Chancellor; (c) it must comply with such requirements as shall be prescribed by the Lord Chancellor. (5) Regulations under subsection (4)(c) may— (a) require any person which enters into a third party funding agreement with a litigant to first obtain a license from a licensing body to be designated by the Lord Chancellor; and (b) set out conditions to be satisfied in order to obtain such a license. (6) In this section ““advocacy services”” and ““litigation services”” are as defined in section 119 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990.””