JDP advised a litigation fund in a multimillion-PLN investment in consumer claims in Poland

The JDP team advised one of the largest international funds operating in the litigation finance sector on structured investment in mass consumer claims.

Third-party funding has significantly changed the way of recovering claims in Western Europe and the USA. Recently, specialised entities have also shown increased interest in this sector in Poland. Litigation funding enables those who have legitimate claims, but for economic reasons are unable to cover the costs of litigation, such as court charges or legal advice fees, to benefit from their right to litigation. It involves so-called “no-cost” litigation, as the fund covers all the litigation expenses and will not seek reimbursement from the claimant if the case is lost. However, if the claimant wins, a certain portion of the amount awarded will serve as the fund’s remuneration for the funding provided.

Unlike most previous investments of this type in Poland, which focused on individual claims pursued through arbitration, this investment is aimed to build a broad portfolio of consumer claims. Given the scale and nature of the investment, JDP provided comprehensive advice including, among other things, preparing an opinion on the chances of success in pursuing claims being the subject of the investment, assisting in investment structuring, drafting necessary agreements with consumers for the funding of their claims, carrying out a tax analysis related to the investment, and providing legal advice on personal data protection and advertising law.

The project was led by Adrian Andrychowski (Attorney-at-law, Counsel) who has extensive experience in advising multinational entities on investing in claims. The following teams were involved in the legal advice on this project: tax team: Michał Jagielski (Tax Expert, Co-Head of Tax) and Magdalena Zasiewska (Tax Adviser, Co-Head of Tax), data protection team: Anna Matusiak-Wekiera (Attorney-at-law, Counsel) and Ewelina Kęciek (Attorney-at-law, Senior Associate), and IP/IT team: Ewa Mońdziel (Attorney-at-law, Senior Associate) and Amelia Prawda (Attorney-at-law, Associate).