Quietly changing third-party funding regulations have left a series of pitfalls for unwary solicitors. Jamie Carpenter reports

A quiet revolution has taken place in the law relating to third-party funding. Not so long ago, the idea of a party financing a claim in which it had no interest in return for a share of the proceeds would have been met with a cry of ‘champerty’, but under the banner of ‘access to justice’ parliament and the courts have, in recent years, opened the doors to forms of litigation funding which would have been unthinkable a generation ago.