Maintenance and champerty

Maurice and Sibthorpe v London Borough of Suffolk [2010] EWHC B1 (QB)

Two housing disrepair claims were funded by conditional fee agreements which provided for success fees of 10%, limited the solicitor’s costs to costs recovered and provided that the solicitors would indemnify the claimants against any adverse cost orders. The defendants contended that the indemnity against liability to pay the opponent’s costs was tainted by champerty or maintenance and that the whole CFA thus became an enforceable. They also argued that the indemnity against costs liability amounted to insurance and therefore was an activity by way of a business within the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.