The parties had agreed to assign the judgment debt to the solicitor acting.
Held: The agreement was champertous as an assignment of an interest in litigation, and therefore was void, having been made before judgment and even though it had been made bona fide.
Lord Esher MR said: ‘In order to preserve the honour and honesty of the profession it was a rule of law which the court had laid down and would always insist upon that a solicitor could not make an arrangement of any kind with his client during the litigation he was conducting so as to give him any advantage in respect of the result of that litigation.’
Judges:
Lord Esher MR
Citations:
(1896) 13 TLR 110, (1896) 41 Sol Jo 129
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Wallersteiner v Moir (No 2) CA 1975
The court was asked whether Moir would be entitled to legal aid to bring a derivative action on behalf of a company against its majority shareholder.
Held: A minority shareholder bringing a derivative action on behalf of a company could obtain . .
Cited – Sibthorpe and Morris v London Borough of Southwark CA 25-Jan-2011
The court was asked as to the extent to which the ancient rule against champerty prevents a solicitor agreeing to indemnify his claimant client against any liability for costs which she may incur against the defendant in the litigation in which the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Legal Professions, Contract
Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.444823