Law Society slams MoJ plans on disclosure of third party contributors in JR challenges

The Law Society has hit out at Government proposals for the disclosure of financial information pertaining to third party funding of judicial review challenges.

In its response to a Ministry of Justice consultation, Chancery Lane said: “The requirement to provide financial information about the funding of a claim for judicial review is onerous on claimants, the contributor and the court, who will have to verify the information provided about third parties and is limited both in time and resources.”

The Law Society argued that such a requirement to provide the details of contributors might dissuade or even prevent a third party from providing financial assistance or contributing “due to the risk in being pursued for costs in proceedings where they:

• are not a party,
• have no control over the conduct of litigation, and
• do not benefit from the judicial review.”

Chancery Lane makes a number of recommendations in its response. The principal ones were:

• The provision of any financial information to defendants or third parties, including the identity of any third party funder, should only be provided in exceptional circumstances.
• The default position being that financial information should only be disclosed at the discretion of the court:

a) in the event that the claimant cannot meet its liabilities at the end of the case, and

b) only if the court is satisfied that the defendant/interested party has provided sufficient grounds demonstrating a justifiable concern that the contributor was exerting control over the litigation.

• The threshold of £3,000 – increased by the Government from the original suggestion of £1,500 – “may still be still too low and catch many litigants who have no control over the conduct of litigation”. Such a threshold risked inundating the court with volumes of unhelpful information about contributors who have no expectation of control or benefit from the donation they have made.