Harbour’s offering is simple. We provide funding and insurance solutions which help you manage the costs and risk of litigation or arbitration.
When we fund individuals or corporate claimants, we can pay all the legal fees and disbursements over the lifetime of the claim. In exchange, when the claim succeeds and damages are awarded, we receive a pre-agreed share of the amount recovered. If the claim does not succeed, our funding is written off, and the loss is Harbour’s alone. Alternatively, there are other Harbour products which are available to meet your funding needs.
We can also shield you from the risk of adverse costs. After the Event insurance cover can be purchased to manage adverse costs, own-side costs, and own-side disbursements. It can be purchased as a stand-alone product, as well as in conjunction with our funding solution. Our team will be happy to let you know more, or you can read about the insurance products available to claimants and defendants at Harbour Underwriting.
Funding for law firms is also available allowing them to mitigate the risk of offering contingent fees or working capital facilities to expand their practices and develop new workstreams.
Clients and partners
Corporate claimants, institutional claimants and financial services businesses are increasingly making use of third-party litigation and arbitration funding. As in-house legal budgets continue to contract, third-party funding enables meritorious claims to be brought without drawing funds away from core areas of the business. It allows corporates to consider litigation as an asset, rather than a drain on resources and nothing in our funding agreement will require a company to relinquish control over their claims.
- We can pay legal fees and disbursements in exchange for a share of the proceeds if the claim is successful and damages are recovered. Funding is available for single cases or a portfolio of cases, and we can offer a range of pricing options which are tailored to your company’s circumstances.
- We can also purchase prospective claims, judgments or arbitral awards in exchange for an upfront payment. You can remain involved, in which case we can continue to make additional payments to you over time, but you can also withdraw entirely from the case if you prefer.
- Whether in conjunction with a funding solution or not, Harbour Underwriting can provide products to protect you from the risk of adverse costs, and to protect you from your own-side costs escalating.
- For corporate defendants, as well as adverse and own-side costs insurance products, Harbour Underwriting can also provide products which cap the amount you may have to pay if a successful claim is made against you. This enables you to quantify and cap a previously unquantifiable liability.
- Funding solutions are also available to meet the needs of corporate trustees, insurance companies, and financial services businesses which own portfolios of companies.
Our funding solutions enable insolvent estates to bring claims which could otherwise not be pursued because of a lack of funds.
We can also provide funds to companies undergoing restructuring, which have good claims but limited funds. They can maximise their income whilst minimising their risk at a sensitive time for the business.
- We can pay the fees of insolvency practitioners and lawyers to pursue claims, in exchange for a share of the proceeds if the claim is successful and money is recovered. Funding is available for single cases or portfolios of cases.
- We can purchase claims outright and pursue them ourselves, providing immediate value for creditors.
- We can also provide seed funding to meet the costs of initial investigative work.
- We can provide funding for security for costs and solutions for cross-undertakings in damages which can be required if you are seeking an injunction.
- Harbour Underwriting can provide insurance (on a stand-alone basis or in conjunction with a litigation funding solution) to protect you from the risk of adverse costs, and to protect you from your own-side costs escalating.
Most claimants who need to litigate or arbitrate do not have the means to do so alone. Even those with substantial resources face an expensive, time-consuming and uncertain process fraught with risk. They may therefore prefer to preserve their capital for alternative purposes and choose to work with Harbour to benefit from our funding and expertise. This is how we can help:
- We can pay legal fees in exchange for a share of the proceeds if the claim is successful and monies are recovered. Funding is available for single cases or a portfolio of cases.
- We can purchase prospective claims, judgments or arbitral awards in exchange for an upfront payment to you, with or without deferred consideration should the claim succeed.
- Whether in conjunction with funding or not, Harbour Underwriting can provide products to lay off the risk of both adverse costs and own-side costs.
- Law firms are increasingly moving away from the billable hour as they develop more strategic and commercial relationships with their clients. Our funding supports them in offering more flexibility in how they charge their clients for work done. We can provide working capital facilities for law firms. This allows firms to offer an increased number of contingency fee arrangements to their clients to secure more mandates or to use the funding for more general purposes in the firm.
- Where firms run single cases, or multiple cases in a portfolio, on a wholly or partially contingent fee basis, we can pay up to 100% of the value of the legal fees deferred by the law firm in exchange for a share of the law firm’s success fee.
