In an announcement released earlier this week by LPF Group, the New Zealand litigation funder revealed that it had strengthened its board with the appointment of Judge Robert Dobson KC as a director. Mr Dobson brings a wealth of experience as both a commercial lawyer and judge, having served on the High Court from 2007 to 2020. Mr Dobson briefling returned to the bench as an acting judge on the Court of Appeal in 2022, before returning to his arbitration and mediation practice at Stout Street Chambers.

Phil Newland, founder and director of LPF, said “LPF is delighted to have Mr Dobson, a proven jurist with substantial legal and judicial experience join the board at such an important time for the development of class action law in New Zealand.”

Commenting on his new role, Mr Dobson stated: “Having observed LPF’s role from a different perspective for many years I now look forward to playing a part in continuing the development of litigation funding and assisting access to justice. I am very much looking forward to joining LPF in helping meritorious cases attract funding in the pursuit of justice.”

In addition to the appointment of Mr Dobson, LPF also stated that the company’s current Chairman, Bill Wilson KC, will be moving to the position of Emeritus Chair to provide continuing support to the funder’s board. Newland praised Wilson’s work during his time at LPF by saying “With Bill’s strong support LPF has assisted many thousands of New Zealanders to achieve redress, including in leading cases such as Mainzeal, Kiwifruit and in the recent CBL and Intueri shareholder class actions.”

Following the publication of the Civil Justice Council’s interim report on litigation funding, industry leaders and experts have opined on the future direction of UK’s funding market. At a recent industry conference, attendees were treated to the views of the head of one of the country’s most important judicial bodies when it comes to litigation funding.

Reporting by CDR covers remarks delivered by Andrew Lenon KC, chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) at the Global Class Actions Symposium. The keynote speech on the second day of the symposium saw Lenon discuss the current state of the CAT and the involvement of third-party funding, which he described as “essential to the success of the collective proceedings regime.”

Lenon noted that despite the period of uncertainty in the initial aftermath of the PACCAR decision, he suggested that “it seems likely that the UK market for litigation funding and collective proceedings will continue to grow.” Furthermore, Lenon argued that in this growth environment, the result would be the emergence of a “fully functioning competitive market for litigation funding.”

The CAT’s chairman emphasised the tribunal’s role “to clarify the legal principles relating to funding arrangements”, with a focus on ensuring that “collective proceedings do not become a cash cow to funders and lawyers, with minimal returns to class members.” However, in a welcome nod to funders and lawyers alike, Lenon assured that the CAT “will be slow to interfere with funding arrangements freely negotiated between funders and class representatives.”

Whilst he acknowledged that the CAT must keep a close eye to ensure that funder’s fees and legal costs do not spiral out of control, Lenon agreed that it was “entirely legitimate for funders to seek a return on their investment.” In summarising the CAT’s position on interfering with litigation funding agreements, Lenon said that “the tribunal should therefore be slow to second guess.”

The growth of multinational technology corporations has provided years of product innovation and a mass availability of affordable consumer electronics. However, the resulting monopolies that have risen to dominate these markets have also created space for the potential for anti-competitive behaviour that harms consumers. In this environment, it is unsurprising we are seeing more and more claims being brought against these tech giants, with the legal proceedings supported by third-party litigation funders.

An article in TechCrunch covers the announcement of a new collective action being brought against Apple by the UK consumer rights group Which?, representing up to 40 million consumers over allegations that Apple breached competition law by overcharging users of the iCloud service. The opt-out proceedings, valued at approximately £3 billion, claims that Apple abused its monopoly position to favour iCloud over competing cloud storage providers and locking in customers to the iCloud services, thereby preventing them from switching to a competitor and enabling Apple to charge increasingly higher fees.

The application for certification was filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) on 8 November 2024, with the claim seeking to represent any UK consumer who used an iOS device or iCloud services from 1 October 2025 onwards. This nine year time period is particularly relevant as it follows the introduction of the Consumer Rights Act from that date. The claims is being funded by Litigation Capital Management (LCM), with litigation risk insurance having been secured to cover Apple’s legal costs if the claim is not successful

More information about the collective proceedings can be found on the Cloud Claim website.

In response to this new legal action being brought, Apple spokesperson Tom Parker provided the following statement: “Apple believes in providing our customers with choices. Our users are not required to use iCloud, and many rely on a wide range of third-party alternatives for data storage. In addition, we work hard to make data transfer as easy as possible — whether its to iCloud or another service. We reject any suggestion that our iCloud practices are anticompetitive and will vigorously defend against any legal claim otherwise.”

In a post on LinkedIn, Australian funder Litigation Lending Services (LLS) announced the promotion of Emma Colantonio to the position of Chief Investment Officer. In the announcement, LLS said that Emma’s dedication and strategic insight have been instrumental to the success of the business.

Colantonio joined LLS in 2021 as an investment manager and served in that role for two years before being promoted to senior investment manager in May 2023. Prior to joining LLS in 2021, Colantonio had also spent five years at MinterEllison as a senior associate, as well as having served as a senior legal counsel at Commonwealth Bank. 

In her own post on LinkedIn, Colantonio provided the following comment: “Excited to step into the role as Chief Investment Officer at Litigation Lending Services Limited! A big thank you to the leadership team for their trust and support. Looking forward to driving our mission forward and exploring new opportunities in litigation funding.”As LFJ reported in August of this year, Colantonio was recently appointed to the board of The Association of Litigation Funders of Australia (AALF) as a non executive director, replacing LLS’ own Stephen Conrad in that position.

The enthusiasm for cryptocurrency over recent years has seen retail investors look to these digital assets as a route to impressive financial returns. However, this relatively nascent and unregulated asset class has also resulted in a significant amount of malpractice and criminal activity, leading to a surge in related legal cases that some funders are engaging with.

An article in TheBusinessDesk covers the news that IQuote, a Manchester-based litigation funder, has acquired over 1,000 claims related to cryptocurrency fraud. The cases that IQuote is funding are being brought by individuals who have been the victims of crypto scams or had their digital assets stolen. IQuote’s acquisition of these claims was achieved both through marketing efforts and organic traffic, with the individual value of the cases ranging from £10,000 to £10 million.

Craig Cornick, founder and chief executive, stated: “At IQuote, we are continually evolving our funding strategies to stay aligned with the dynamic and rapidly changing litigation landscape and are committed to helping victims receive justice. Our goal is to ensure that our financial solutions not only meet the current demands of the legal industry but also anticipate future trends, providing innovative and sustainable funding options for our clients.”