Subpostmaster?s Lawyer Calls on SRA to Examine Legal Costs in Post Office Litigation

[Gunnar Larson]

https://litigationfinancejournal.com/subpostmasters-lawyer-calls-on-sra-to-examine-legal-costs-in-post-office-litigation/


The Post Office scandal, and its rise to the forefront of public attention
in the UK, has been repeatedly cited as a prime example of the crucial role
that litigation finance plays in securing access to justice for victims.
However, arguments over the legal costs and funder’s returns in this case
continue to be aired, as a lawyer for one of the subpostmasters is calling
on regulators to get involved.


Reporting by The Telegraph, and shared by Yahoo Finance, reveals that one
of the subpostmasters in the Post Office Horizon litigation is calling for
the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to investigate the legal fees
paid out from the £58 million settlement fund. The subpostmaster’s lawyer,
Jim Diamond, has written to the SRA after he has repeatedly asked for
additional information from Freeths, the firm which represented the victims
in the case, about how the settlement was divided between the law firm,
litigation funder and the claimants.

Mr Diamond explained in his letter that he has twice asked Freeths to
provide the information along with supporting documents, but the law firm
has rebuffed his outreach and said that as the litigation is now closed,
they are not open to engaging on the subject. Diamond is asking the SRA to
clarify whether the law firm is obligated to comply with his request and
provide the documents to their former client, the postmaster.

Mr Diamond also used the letter to criticise the recent article written by
Neil Purslow, founder and chief investment officer of Therium Capital
Management. In the guest article published in The Times, Purslow had
refuted suggestions that Therium’s remuneration accounted for 80% of the
settlement fund. In his letter to the SRA, Diamond argued that Therium’s
founder should not have discussed the breakdown of costs in public, as
these details are ‘private and confidential.’

At the recent Brown Rudnick European Litigation Funding Conference, Mr
Purslow once again denied the claims about an ‘80% payout’ to Therium and
offered a detailed explanation of the funder’s involvement in the case.
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