Since this time, the press reports Mrs Young has secured private litigation funding to enable her to continue pursuing Mr Young for a fair financial settlement.Mrs Young’s funding comes via Harbour Litigation Funding Limited – a provider traditionally known for funding commercial type litigation.
So far, Mrs Young is reported to be none the wiser about the whereabouts of the family’s matrimonial assets. This is despite Mr Young’s fortune being valued at some £400 million before their separation.
Traditionally, it has proven difficult to secure litigation funding on behalf of clients who require a sum upfront to pay their legal fees for divorce and financial proceedings. This often disadvantages one spouse against the other, particularly when one has assumed a traditional role of raising children and running the home, whilst the other has worked and perhaps controlled the finances. Before narrowing their criteria for all types of borrowing, there was a period when banks appeared keen to offer litigation funding as a service to those going through divorce proceedings.
The reality is that relatively few offers of litigation loans have been forthcoming. It will be hoped such funding will furnish Mrs Young and her legal team with sufficient financial resource to take significant steps towards bringing down the thus far impenetrable barrier to Mr Young’s financial information; to identify the matrimonial assets of the parties and the chronology of financial events before and following their separation.
Claire Molyneux
On a broader level, will this funding arrangement lead to a new source of funding legal fees for those going through the divorce process without immediate access to funds?