Legal Funding Journal is dedicated to informing and engaging the global legal funding community through daily news, insight, analysis and original content.

Omni Bridgeway is funding a class action against the New South Wales Government on behalf of people who paid merchant fees on card and PayPal transactions with state agencies such as Service NSW and Revenue NSW.

According to Omni Bridgeway's claim page, the claim follows the government's own admission in October 2024 that approximately 92 million card transactions since 2016 had attracted about $144 million in merchant fees levied without a lawful basis. The claim alleges the government received legal advice on four separate occasions from the NSW Crown Solicitor that the practice was unlawful.

The claim alleges that the government owed a duty of care to those who paid the fees and breached it by continuing to charge them, and that it made misleading statements about its right to do so in breach of Australian consumer protection laws. Omni Bridgeway notes that, as at the date of filing, the government had not confirmed whether it would refund the surcharges.

The class covers anyone who paid a merchant fee to the NSW Government between 23 September 2020 and 23 September 2026, for example when renewing a driver licence or vehicle registration, or buying a National Parks annual pass. Piper Alderman is on the record for the class.

The action is funded on a no win, no pay basis. If it succeeds, Omni Bridgeway will recover its costs plus a commission, and it has agreed to cover any adverse costs awarded to the government, so class members face no out-of-pocket exposure.

The client committee in the Mariana dam litigation has taken its fight over who represents more than 400,000 claimants to the Court of Appeal, after the High Court refused it permission to appeal a ruling that left PGMBM, formerly Pogust Goodhead, in control of the claim.

As reported by Legal Business, London disputes boutique Humphries Kerstetter, which acts for the committee, announced on 27 October that it had applied to the Court of Appeal for permission.

The application follows Mr Justice Waksman's October ruling that the committee had no authority to terminate the collective conditional fee agreements or litigation management agreements with PGMBM, and therefore could not appoint Bailey Glasser International to run the next phase of the case. "It is plain to me that Pogust Goodhead's construction is preferred," the judge said at the time, adding that the committee "had no power to instruct BGI." He ordered £300,000 in costs on account.

The dispute has direct consequences for the claim's funding. PGMBM is backed by Gramercy, and the committee's criticisms in the High Court included concerns about the funder. PGMBM had estimated that claimants would face around £2 billion in costs exposure if its contracts were terminated.

The underlying claim arises from the 2015 collapse of the Fundão dam in Brazil. BHP was found strictly liable in November 2025, with a quantum trial listed for 2027. Any appeal on representation would run alongside preparations for that trial.

The cost of the U.S. tort system has nearly doubled over a decade, rising from $299.7bn in 2014 to $579.7bn in 2023, according to new research that identifies third-party litigation funding among the factors behind the increase.

As reported by Insurance Business Magazine, the figures come from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform's 2026 report, *International Tort Costs: A Comparative Analysis*, produced with the Insurance Information Institute. Tort costs grew at roughly twice the rate of the wider economy over the period and about four times the rate of inflation.

Commercial lines accounted for $377.73bn of the total against $202.01bn for personal lines. Other liability at $249.31bn and personal auto at $188.13bn together represent 75.45% of all tort costs. Self-insured and uninsured exposures made up $163.25bn, or 28.16% of the total.

Alongside third-party litigation funding, the report points to social inflation, nuclear verdicts and expanding theories of liability. Michel Léonard, chief economist at the Insurance Information Institute, framed the trend as a structural strain on the casualty market rather than a cyclical one. The analysis projects that U.S. and UK tort costs as a share of GDP will converge around 2029 to 2030.

The report is the latest from a body that has consistently urged disclosure requirements for litigation funding arrangements, and its figures are likely to feature in the state and federal debates now underway.

Harbour Credit has provided a £2m funding package to Manchester credit hire specialist Garvins Law, financing a management buyout that leaves founder Neil Garvin as the firm's sole shareholder.

As reported by Legal Futures, the package from the lending arm of litigation funder Harbour includes a £1m working capital facility. Garvins Law was founded in 2007 and employs 22 staff, having built its practice around credit hire work following the whiplash reforms. The firm was previously owned by alternative business structure EDAM Group, which entered administration in January 2025; Garvins remained solvent and continued trading throughout.

The firm's accounts for the year to 31 March 2026 show turnover of £2.5m, more than double the prior year, and a profit of £125,000 against a £200,000 loss the year before.

"We have an experienced team, an established position in the credit hire market and ambitious plans to grow the business," said Neil Garvin. Ellora MacPherson is managing director of Harbour Credit.

The transaction illustrates the continuing expansion of litigation funders into law firm lending, where capital is deployed against a practice's receivables and work in progress rather than the outcome of a single case. For claimant firms emerging from the ownership of a collapsed consolidator, that form of credit offers a route to independence without ceding equity to an external investor.

The High Court has voided an £11m claim after finding that the cause of action had been assigned to a company in which the solicitors acting on the matter held shares, applying a rule against solicitors purchasing their clients' claims that dates back to 1784.

As reported by Legal Futures, the claim arose from an April 2019 deed of loan from Maltby Services to John Rhoden. The cause of action was assigned first to TD Capital in November 2024 and then to MSV Estates in December 2025. Andrew Hickman and Anthony Page, solicitors at Hickman Construction Law in Worcestershire, each held approximately 11% of the relevant company. Master Sullivan, sitting in the King's Bench Division, applied the so-called "solicitor rule" derived from Hall v Hallet (1784) and held the claim void.

Rejecting the argument that minority shareholdings held through a corporate vehicle took the arrangement outside the rule, the Master said: "The solicitor rule would be hollow if it could be so easily circumvented merely by the solicitors acting through a company. That is no less a forceful argument even if they are minority shareholders."

The ruling is relevant to anyone structuring claim acquisitions rather than conventional funding agreements. It signals that the courts will look through corporate vehicles to the identity of the beneficial owners, and that an assignment which places a client's claim in the hands of the solicitors conducting it risks being set aside entirely rather than merely reduced.

Litigation Capital Management has obtained a further extension of the covenant waiver on its senior debt facility, buying the funder two additional weeks as it works to complete a longer-term amendment to the facility.

As reported in a regulatory announcement released on 2 November 2026, the waiver agreed with lender Northleaf Capital Partners (Canada) Ltd had been due to expire on 31 October 2026 and has now been extended to 13 November 2026. The company said the short duration reflects the fact that the conditions precedent to the longer-term facility amendment announced on 30 September 2026 are close to being satisfied. The interest rate on the facility remains 2.00% per annum above the standard rate, and no additional waiver fee is payable.

The extension is the latest in a sequence of short waivers running back to December 2025, during which the facility limit was increased from US$75m to US$100m. LCM's strategic review, announced in September 2025, concluded without a transaction, and the company is now in orderly run-off.

For the financial year ended June 2026, LCM reported a loss after tax of A$165.7m and net liabilities of A$53.6m. In October the company disclosed an unsuccessful judgment in an Australian insolvency claim and received a termination notice alleging breach of a funding agreement in a Competition Appeal Tribunal collective action, which LCM disputes. Shares closed at 0.499p on 2 November.

The estate of a deceased class representative has been ordered to pay £7.7m in costs after the collective proceedings he brought against a group of UK rail operators collapsed, in a ruling that underscores the adverse costs exposure attaching to opt-out claims in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

As reported by The Law Society Gazette, the case concerned David Courtney Boyle, who in 2021 brought a claim valued at roughly £400m against Govia Thameslink Railway and other defendants over allegedly inflated fares on London to Brighton routes. Mr Boyle died of Parkinson's disease in June 2025. With no replacement class representative coming forward, the Tribunal revoked the collective proceedings order and the claim was decertified. The Tribunal's Order of the Chair on costs is dated 26 October 2026, and a further costs hearing has been listed for 24 November 2026.

The outcome is the second costs ruling of its kind against a UK class representative in recent months. In May 2026, Walter Merricks CBE was ordered to pay £70,000 in interim costs — against a defence application for £223,000 — after withdrawing from proceedings for want of after-the-event insurance.

For funders, the decision reinforces the centrality of adverse costs cover in the economics of UK collective actions. Where a class representative dies or withdraws and no successor steps in, the claim does not simply lapse: the defendants' costs crystallise, and the question of who ultimately bears them turns on the funding and insurance arrangements put in place at the outset.

Omni Bridgeway has restated its medium-term targets for assets under management and cost coverage, telling investors it expects annualised AUM growth of at least 10% through FY28.

As reported by GlobeNewswire, the Australian funder is also targeting 70% coverage of its operating costs by FY28. Assets under management stand at A$5.9bn, up 12% since June 2025, representing a 17% compound annual growth rate since June 2022.

The cost coverage trajectory is the more telling figure. The measure has moved from 17% in FY23 to 53% in FY26, as the business shifts weight from its own balance sheet toward third-party capital and fee income. Operating expenses fell 20% in FY26 while new commitments rose 38%.

Chief executive Raymond van Hulst has positioned the group around capital-light growth. FY26 produced record proceeds of A$350.5m, up 49%, alongside A$712.2m in new commitments, A$862m of third-party capital and more than A$1.6bn in total capital formation.

The guidance is a reaffirmation rather than a new disclosure, and the targets were set out in the company's FY26 results cycle. Its value lies in the consistency of the message: Omni Bridgeway continues to tell the market that growth will come through managed funds and co-investment rather than through expanding its own book.