International firm Fieldfisher has challenged litigation funders with a ‘more competitive’ insurance policy for damages-based agreements.

Having introduced a litigation funding service for commercial claims last year, the firm has announced a DBA insurance policy that will guarantee a proportion of the firm’s unbilled work in progress and disbursements at the end of the case. Fieldfisher said the product is the ‘first of its kind’ as it covers a portfolio of cases directly funded by the firm.

The City practice moved into the litigation funding market in 2019 with FeeSolve, a package of alternative funding arrangements including DBAs. Such agreements have proved largely unpopular with the profession because of the risk involved. 

Tony Lewis, dispute resolution partner and head of FeeSolve at Fieldfisher, said: ‘This product is a real challenge to funders in the market and incredibly timely. In the new Covid 19 world, businesses more than ever are looking at how they can manage costs. We are providing certainty of cost for clients and showing that we have skin in the game, without the need for funders. We are taking the risk and costs off of businesses bottom line. Why should clients share a hefty portion of their winnings with funders when they can work directly with us on a more competitive basis?’

The firm said it has restructured internally to provide ‘unbiased and independent assessment’ about the chance of winning and likely costs of completing the case. It has triaged around 20 cases so far.