Investments made by Arkansas’s Teacher Retirement Systems increased by a staggering $783 million. This ranks the fund in the top 5% of public pension funds in America. This comes after last year’s investments fell to only $15.1 billion as of the beginning of COVID shutdowns.Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette details that trustees were asked to consider a proposed investment of $30 million into a fund focusing on third-party litigation funding. One trustee, state education commissioner Johnny Key, suggested that such an investment would be illegal according to a 2015 law regulating consumer legal lending. The committee will likely revisit the investment after due diligence is conducted.Trustees did authorize investments of up to $50 million in three different funds in a variety of industries—including real estate funding, renovation and redevelopment of commercial property, and utilities like power and telecommunications.Changes in investment policy have been voted on—albeit without the approval of the full board. New investments may require increased input from investment consultants. It’s suggested that this change might make it more difficult for the fund to invest in new areas—such as third-party legal funding. There is concern that a speedy, possibly reactionary change to an existing policy will not produce the desired result.
When Alexander Tugushev went to London in 2018, he expected to sue Magnus Roth and his former business partners for a cut of Russian fishing group, Norebo. The claim revolved around a one-third share based on informal verbal agreements made long before the founding of Norebo.Business Matters explains that counsel recently argued that Tugushev gave up his claim in the fishing industry when he accepted a position as Deputy Chair of Russian Fisheries Committee in 2003. Four years later, his career in public service ended in disgrace as he was sentenced to a six-year prison term for fraud and accepting bribes.Currently, Tugushev is facing multiple legal battles including investigations into stolen documents and a complex claim in London. Tugushev’s claim is being financed by unnamed litigation funders. Curiously, funding entity 17Arm appears to have been established solely to fund Tugushev’s claim.Roth and his partner, Vitaly Orlov, denied ever offering a piece of their business to Tughhev. Indeed, Tugushev was in prison when the company was formed.The settlement details have not been released. As the original claim was nearly GBP 350 million, it’s hard to imagine that Tugeshev and his funders won’t enjoy a nice payday all the same.
Optimise is a new scheme covering clinical negligence and personal injury, specifically aimed at small law firms. The partnership comes amid motor legal reforms and offers a full dedicated authority scheme for firms and sole practitioners who take on clinical negligence or personal injury cases.DAS LEI details that the partnership will offer firms fixed competitive rates, an online portal to simplify processing and case submission, and a dedicated relationship manager. There is expected to be a range of clinical negligence specialist areas like specific types of product liability or medical negligence—such as dental negligence.DAS UK is part of the world’s largest group of reinsurers. John Durbin, Sales and Business Development Manager, explains that it feels like the right time to help out smaller law firms that specialize in personal injury and clinical negligence.
Alternative Investment specialist Percent recently announced a strategic partnership with Mustang Litigation Funding. Mustang, founded in 2018, focuses on portfolio litigation funding and personal injury case funding. This includes product liability, auto accidents, and premises liability. The partnership is expected to expand investment options and grow the companies' network of partners.Percent explains that litigation finance is now a well-established alternative asset class that’s gaining global acceptance. Non-recourse funding is provided to pursue meritorious legal matters, with remuneration to the funder coming out of any settlement or award in the case—often calculated based on how long the case takes to be resolved.Jimmy Beltz, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Mustang Litigation Funding, stated that this partnership will be a boon to investors who can now benefit from this uncorrelated asset class. Alex Pirro, VP of Capital Markets at Percent, details that Mustang’s impressive relationships with partners and firms speak well of the funder's ability to source and manage cases.
A potential class action against Tyro Payments Limited is being investigated by Bannister Law Class Actions. Tyro is Australia’s largest non-bank provider of Point of Sale Electronic Fund Transfer services. Service outages in January of this year impacted hundreds of businesses—causing loss of sales revenue, service fees that provided poor or no service, customer dissatisfaction, and general damage to businesses as they sought to compensate for Tyro’s outages.Bannister Law Class Actions explains that the claim alleges breach of warranties, breach of contract, and that the services provided by Tyro were not of reasonable quality. Further, Tyro allegedly fraudulently claimed that its service worked 99.9% of the time.This potential class action will be funded by Court House Capital. As such, claimants will not endure any out-of-pocket costs. Fees and costs will be deducted from any settlement or award.Eligibility requires the following conditions to be met:
Businesses contracted with Tyro payment services before January 5 of this year.
Businesses endured connectivity issues beginning in January 2021.
Losses were endured due to Tyro connectivity failures.
Potential compensation will be based on loss of revenue, terminal and rental fees, and any damages caused by finding replacement services. Interested parties may contact Bannister Law Class Action Tyro Team.
Liquidators of Nuoxi Capital and Kunzhi Ltd are presently engaged in negotiations with potential litigation funders. Multiple sources claim that it will be very expensive to recover various inter-company claims—not to mention the need for a Beijing court to accept a previous keepwell ruling originating in Hong Kong.LinkedIn details that the proceedings are expected to generate recoveries for offshore bondholders. Claims stem from PK Founder allegedly breaching EIPU deeds, as well as the alleged breach of keepwell assurances.Nuoxi Capital focuses on issuing debt securities for credit, refinancing, and acquisitions. Founded in 2017, it operates as a ‘special purpose entity’ in the Tech industry.
Law firm King & Spaulding, along with partners Craig Miles and Reginald Smith, are being sued by former client, Trinh Vinh Binh. The firm is accused of failing to follow client instructions, and of ‘erroneous allocation’ of funds. Claims include breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and negligence, as Binh seeks fee forfeiture in addition to damages.Law.com details that Binh, a resident of The Netherlands, hired the firm in 2015, and entered a fee agreement with litigation funder Burford Capital. King & Spaulding would represent Binh in arbitration with The Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Burford agreed to provide up to AU $4.678 million.All told, more than AU $3.5 million was available for legal expenses. The legal team assured Binh and Burford Capital that this would be enough to effectively resolve the arbitration.As of May of the following year, Binh’s legal team had been paid nearly $2 million, with slightly less than that remaining in the team's coffers. According to the filing, Miles and Smith allegedly colluded with Burford to seek ways to impose more fees. Burford Capital is not a named defendant and declined to comment on the case.
Shine Lawyers is seeking claimants for a newly launched class action on behalf of indigenous Australians whose wages were stolen. Wage control legislation led to wages being withheld in the period between the late 1800s and the early 1970s. This may include farmworkers, domestic staffers, laborers, stockmen, and others.Shine details that to join the class action, the following conditions must be met:
Impacted parties must be Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander.
Claimants or their families must have worked in the Northern Territory prior to the law change in 1972.
Claimants or their family members were not paid all owed wages.
Thanks to third-party legal funding from Litigation Lending Services, there is no cost for claimants to sign up for the case. Fees and costs will be deducted from any settlement or award. Shine Lawyers estimates that millions in unpaid wages may be owed to claimants. The case seeks to reconcile payments with everyone who was shorted.
The appointment of Jan Buza and Jozef Maruscak provides key support for Apex’s growth strategy, strengthening resources to meet a significant increase in case numbers. Jan Buza led Business Development at Exponea, a data company that raised over £30m and was later acquired by Bloomreach, the leader in Commerce Experience. He then worked on employing AI (artificial intelligence) and predictive analytics in litigation at CourtQuant and was part of Deloitte’s Legal Tech accelerator program. Most recently, he co-founded and heads product development at Trama, a Legal Tech company that is building an AI-powered trademark registration service. Jan says: “It is great to be on board with Apex. I have watched them over the past eighteen months or so as they established themselves as a leading provider of litigation funding solutions. Their innovative use of AI in this field mirrors my own background and I look forward to making a valuable contribution to their capability.” Jozef Maruscak co-founded various Legal Tech projects while studying law at Cambridge University. He then continued as the CEO of CourtQuant, a start-up specialising in predicting key attributes of legal cases using AI and predictive analytics. He is now a partner and Head of Business Development in Sudolabs, a company building software products for Silicon Valley start-ups and Y-Combinator founders. Jozef says: “The legal market is increasingly driven by AI, and I wanted to bring my experience in this area to a company that fully embraces its potential, and that’s definitely true of the senior team at Apex. There is a bright future for AI as a tool to support better decisions by litigation funders and I am confident that Apex is in the best place to disrupt the market.” Commenting on these appointments, Apex CEO Maurice Power expresses confidence in the company’s strengthened resources: “We recently announced that we were looking to expand our team with talented individuals and Jan and Jozef exceed our expectations. “They both have a CV and skillset that fits perfectly with our continuing journey of employing AI in litigation finance to drive up efficiency and performance for our clients and investors. Jan and Jozef will both combine their contribution at Apex with exciting commitments in complementary roles.” About Apex Litigation Funding: Apex Litigation Finance Limited brings together experts from the legal and finance sectors to provide third party litigation funding to litigants (corporates, liquidators, and individuals) who are unable to pursue a claim due to the prohibitive cost of litigation. Although the claim may have merits, uncertainty over the total costs and the potential risk of being ordered to pay the defendant’s cost, should they lose the claim, prohibits access to justice for many claimants. Our process is augmented by artificial intelligence systems to assess risk. As a professional litigation funder, Apex will make available funds to pay legal and other costs associated with a claim in return for an agreed share of any successful return. If there is no recovery, or if the claim is lost, there is nothing to repay. For details, please see www.apexlitigation.com
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