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The first R3 Eastern Regional Meeting of 2015 was held on Monday 19 January at The Bedford Lodge Hotel in Newmarket. James Blick of TheJudge spoke at the meeting on litigation funding pre and post the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO), alongside R3 President, Giles Frampton, Rebecca Page of Enterprise Chambers and Fiona Hotson-Moore of Ensors.

The timing of the meeting was especially useful from a litigation funding perspective. Insolvency litigation was granted a two year exemption from the implementation of LAPSO, stated to expire on 31st March 2015.

During his session, James Blick highlighted the lessons learned from the general implementation of LASPO on 1st April 2013, advising IPs to make any application for insurance well in advance of the deadline to ensure sufficient time for the case to be considered by underwriters and insurance terms to be agreed.

James also gave his predictions for insolvency litigation funding after 1st April 2015, again by reference to how the wider commercial litigation funding market has adapted to the new regime. The focus of many “post-LASPO” applications will be on the economic challenges of financing low value claims without recoverable premiums and CFA success fees, where the recoverable damages may be insufficient to cover the costs of the funding arrangement. James outlined some of the ways in which the extent and scope of the insurance cover purchased can be adjusted in order to mitigate the cost of the ATE premium.

Giles Frampton updated the audience on R3’s on-going lobbying work as regards the Jackson reforms. R3 has secured an Early Day Motion and Giles Frampton urged all attendees to write to their local MPs asking them to sign the motion.

More information about R3’s “Jackson campaign” can be found at:

https://www.r3.org.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-public-affairs/jackson-survey