Do third-party funding – Por uma eficaz composição de interesses?

Abstract

Third-party litigation funding has emerged in recent years as a new business model broadly based on the intervention by a third-party in a dispute, by covering the costs and burdens of an adjudicatory process. Thus, it emerges as a standard facilitating the access to justice by financing the procedure. Although it has undeniable benefits, it nonetheless is a practice that raises some relevant concerns. On the one hand, the lack of regulation and supervision of this new business model jeopardises the protection of the different interests at hand, such as the fight against information asymmetries, the reversal of a tendency towards unequal bargaining between the parties involved, and the prevention of money laundering. On the other hand, issues related to the position of the third-party financier have fueled demands for greater transparency in this sector, which are at the root of changes to arbitration rules and legal reforms.