The Modern Doctrines of Champerty and Maintenance

As torts and as crimes, champerty and maintenance were abolished by statute in England and Wales in 1967. They were considered to be obsolete and the product of a bygone age, when abuses of the court system as practised by rich and powerful noblemen required a robust legal response. A modern, sophisticated, and independent judiciary rendered it unnecessary either to punish or to compensate for champerty or maintenance any longer. However, post-1967, their impact was retained via a 'reservation provision', which ensures that any contract tainted by champerty or maintenance 'is to be treated as contrary to public policy or otherwise illegal.' Fast forward five decades to the present day, and whilst maintenance has arguably reached its use-by date in English law, the same cannot be said of its more aggressive cousin. Champerty, as a doctrine, retains considerable modern impact in this jurisdiction, stalking the modern funding and civil procedure landscape. It continues to have greatest impact in two areas: the funding of litigation, and the assignments of causes of action.

The Modern Doctrines of Champerty and Maintenance looks comparatively at jurisdictions' attitudes towards champerty and maintenance, together with an analysis of law reform studies in the area, both in England and elsewhere.

Rachael Mulheron, Professor of Tort Law, Queen Mary's University London

Rachael Mulheron KC (Hon) is Professor of Tort Law and Civil Justice at Queen Mary University of London. She is widely published in the areas of class actions, costs and funding, general civil procedure, and Tort law. Professor Mulheron was academic member of the Civil Justice Council of England and Wales 2009-18. As the request of the government or the judiciary, she has chaired various working parties, served as a member of relevant rules-drafting committees, undertaken empirical studies, served as official monitor of a pilot court project, and served as principal author of various reports and publications across numerous topics of controversy within civil procedure.

Part I: Setting the Context
1. Introducing Champerty and Maintenance
2. The Abolition, and Reservation, of Champerty and Maintenance in England
3. Champerty and Maintenance in Other Jurisdictions
Part II: Champertous Funding
4. The Modern Effects of Champerty and Maintenance on Funded Litigation
5. Non-Lawyers' Funding
6. Lawyers' Funding
Part III: Champertous Assignments
7. General Concepts: Assessing Champertous Assignments
8. Assigning Causes of Action Ancillary to Property Interests
9. Assigning 'Bare' Causes of Action: Proving a Genuine Commercial Interest
10. Public Policy and the Administration of Justice
Part IV: The Potential for Reform
11. Key Reform Issue for Funded Litigation
12. Key Reform Issues for Assignments