In a ruling that could chill litigation funding of cases in English courts, a London judge on Thursday held that third-party litigation funders are liable for additional costs when the parties they fund engage in trial abuses.
The ruling came in a failed $1.65 billion case brought by an obscure entity called Excalibur Ventures LLC, which hired Clifford Chance to sue four oil companies over petroleum interests in Kurdistan. With Thursday’s ruling, the funders’ total tab for this disastrous case has risen to $57.7 million.
