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  • Survey Finds Legal Clients Accept AI for Simple Queries but Not Sensitive Matters

Survey Finds Legal Clients Accept AI for Simple Queries but Not Sensitive Matters

Survey Finds Legal Clients Accept AI for Simple Queries but Not Sensitive Matters

Consumers are increasingly willing to interact with artificial intelligence when contacting a law firm, but that comfort drops sharply once the conversation turns complex or personal, according to new survey data.

According to figures published by Bristol Law Society, the research was commissioned by customer conversation company Moneypenny and conducted by Censuswide among 2,000 UK consumers between June 8 and June 10, 2026. It examined how receptive people are to AI when dealing with different types of businesses, including legal providers.

Where law firms are concerned, willingness tracks closely with the simplicity of the task. Some 29% of respondents said they would be happy using AI for an initial enquiry and 28% for completing a questionnaire. That figure falls to 22% for receiving a case update and 17% for settling a bill. A substantial 38% said they would not be happy using AI for any legal-related communications at all.

The survey also found pronounced generational and gender divides. Among Baby Boomers, 51% rejected AI for any legal communications, as did 44% of Gen X, compared with 28% of Millennials and 26% of Gen Z. More women than men expressed reluctance, at 43% versus 33%.

Bernadette Bennett, Head of Legal at Moneypenny, said the results point away from a uniform approach. “The best customer experiences will be achieved by blending both tech and human communications seamlessly, with AI handling simple queries quickly and efficiently, but deferring consumers to a real person for sensitive issues,” she said.

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Nera Capital Secures £75 Million Funding Commitment for UK, EU and US Investment

Nera Capital has secured a new £75 million funding commitment, capital the litigation funder will deploy across three strategic initiatives spanning the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the United States.

According to a press release from Nera Capital, the commitment reflects the firm's focus on financing claims with strong legal merit and substantial economic impact, and reinforces investor confidence in the litigation finance sector.

A significant portion of the capital will support a growing portfolio of personal injury claims in the United States, where Nera Capital continues to expand through partnerships with specialist American law firms. The investment is intended to provide claimant firms with the capital required to pursue those cases efficiently, while helping injured individuals access justice without bearing the cost of lengthy litigation.

The funding will also be allocated to one of Europe's largest competition litigation matters — a €12 billion antitrust claim in Portugal. The claim is expected to involve thousands of businesses and consumers affected by alleged anti-competitive conduct, with the financing covering the legal costs required to progress the case through the Portuguese courts.

In the United Kingdom, part of the new capital is dedicated to the next phase of motor vehicle finance litigation following the Court of Appeal decision in Angel v Black Horse. That judgment confirmed that large volumes of claims can proceed using omnibus claim forms, improving procedural efficiency for claimant firms pursuing undisclosed commission claims. Nera Capital is working with leading claimant firms to finance those omnibus strategies, providing disbursement funding and operational support to manage claims at scale.

A spokesperson for Nera Capital said the commitment "demonstrates continued investor confidence in both our underwriting model and the long-term opportunities within Nera and litigation finance," citing exceptional demand across multiple jurisdictions. "Our role is to provide law firms with the financial resources they need to pursue meritorious claims, allowing individuals and businesses to access justice irrespective of their financial circumstances."

Established in 2011 and headquartered in Dublin with offices in Manchester and the Netherlands, Nera Capital is a member of the European Litigation Funders Association.

UK Litigation Funding Market Remains in Limbo as Reform Continues to Stall

Nearly three years after the Supreme Court's PACCAR ruling upended the enforceability of litigation funding agreements, the UK market is still waiting for the legislative fix that was meant to restore certainty — and practitioners warn the delay is now carrying a measurable cost.

As reported by Freeths, the Civil Justice Council has already recommended legislative reform, but the government has yet to act on those recommendations. The resulting vacuum has left funders, claimant firms and institutional investors operating without a settled framework.

The commentary identifies capital flight as the most immediate consequence. Panelists observed that jurisdictions such as Australia offer the regulatory clarity and predictable frameworks that institutional investors require, and that capital naturally gravitates toward those markets while the UK position remains unresolved.

Uncertainty also raises transaction costs. Without a clear statutory basis for funding agreements, parties are forced into more complex structuring arrangements to achieve the same commercial result. For lower-value claims in particular, that added friction can render a case economically unviable — precisely the outcome funding is intended to prevent.

The access-to-justice dimension features prominently in the analysis. With civil legal aid substantially reduced, litigation funding has become the practical mechanism through which large-scale claims reach court. The Post Office Horizon litigation is cited as the clearest illustration of funded claims exposing injustice that would otherwise have gone unremedied.

The recommended path forward is swift, "light touch" regulatory reform — a framework sufficient to restore confidence in the enforceability of funding agreements without constraining innovation in how claims are financed.

The broader concern is competitive. As global disputes work becomes increasingly mobile, the analysis concludes that continued inaction places the UK's standing as a leading international disputes hub at risk.

Commercial Court Rules Funder Due-Diligence Communications Fall Outside Litigation Privilege

The Commercial Court has ruled that communications created to help a litigation funder decide whether to back a claim do not ordinarily attract litigation privilege, ordering disclosure of exchanges between a law firm and its funder in a long-running dispute against Uber.

As reported by Dorsey & Whitney, the decision in Uber London Ltd & Ors v Garry White & Ors; Mishcon de Reya LLP [2026] EWHC 1610 (Comm) arose from black-cab drivers' claim that Uber engaged in an unlawful conspiracy. Mishcon de Reya assessed the merits of the claim for funder Harbour in late 2017, before beginning to represent the drivers in October 2018. Uber sought disclosure of those pre-engagement communications.

The court held that the dominant purpose of the firm's exchanges with Harbour was to evaluate the claim as an investment, not to conduct litigation, and that such funder-facing material therefore falls outside litigation privilege. It distinguished a funder's investment decision from a litigant's own funding decisions, which the court treated as inseparable from the litigation itself.

The ruling carries practical weight for how funders and their counsel handle diligence. Documents prepared to win financial backing may be disclosable, and a confidentiality arrangement cannot retroactively strip a client of the right to relevant information a firm has already obtained. The decision adds to a growing body of UK authority testing when funding-related communications must be produced, reinforcing that privilege turns on the dominant purpose of each document rather than the mere involvement of a funder.