International arbitration is an expensive process.\u00a0 Many claimants lack the money to pursue it.\u00a0 Over the past 15 years or so, litigation funding firms have arisen.\u00a0 These funds pool money from investors and look for meritorious international claims to bring.\u00a0 When they find them, they pay the lawyers\u2019 fees for the claimants in return for a share of any money the claimants recover.<\/p>\n
Funders are not interested in speculative and hopeless cases.\u00a0 The more that Malaysian Ministers deride the funders, the more one should think about the investment.\u00a0 Funders are not fools, nor do they have secret political agendas or any of the other childish criticisms that we have heard from the Malaysian Government.<\/p>\n
London-based Therium and other litigation funders pick their cases very carefully.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want to lose their money any more than anyone else does.\u00a0 They therefore do a great deal of due diligence on cases before funding them, ensuring that the legal grounds are solid and that the claimants are reputable.<\/p>\n
In this case, Therium spent nearly a year vetting us and the claim before deciding to fund it.<\/p>\n