Costs and Funding of Civil Litigation: A Comparative Study

The costs and the funding of litigation are central features of all civil justice systems. However, these issues have received relatively little attention by academic writers in general, and by comparative lawyers in particular. This study summarises the approach to costs and funding of civil litigation in 34 jurisdictions from all over the world. On the basis of a number of selected case studies, it compares court charges, lawyers’ fees and expenses for witnesses and the rules for cost shifting across legal systems. With regard to funding of litigation, we discuss contingency fees, success fees, conditional fee agreements, legal expenses insurance and the role of third party funders.

A revised and updated version of this study, together with the individual country reports will be published in book form in 2010: C Hodges, S Vogenauer and M Tulibacka (eds), Costs and Funding of Civil Litigation.

Keywords: Civil justice, Civil litigation, Civil procedure, Conditional fee agreement, Contingency fee, Costs , Expert, Legal aid, Legal expenses insurance, Litigation funding, Third party funding, Witness

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Hodges OBE, Christopher and Vogenauer, Stefan and Tulibacka, Magdalena, Costs and Funding of Civil Litigation: A Comparative Study (December 2, 2009). COSTS AND FUNDING OF CIVIL LITIGATION, C. Hodges, S. Vogenauer and M. Tulibacka, eds., Forthcoming, Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 55-2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1511714