Litigation Funding Available

Litigation Funding available for Relationship Property Disputes

Turner Hopkins is very proud to have now been selected as one of the few New Zealand law firms to become an accredited partner of JustFund, Australasia’s leading family law litigation finance provider.

What is Litigation Funding

The JustFund model allows clients of our firm to obtain loans specifically designed to meet their legal expenses.  This means that clients can now obtain legal representation without any upfront cost.  Payment of the legal fees is ultimately met from the relationship property recovered once settlement of any disputes and all relationship property matters has been resolved.

This opportunity removes the financial barriers that can often restrict clients from obtaining the best legal representation.  It allows people experiencing the difficulties of a relationship breakdown and dispute with an ex-partner to focus on their case and other more pressing issues (including their children and moving forward in their lives) rather than the pressure of mounting legal bills.

The application process is straightforward taking only a few minutes and approval is usually affirmed within a matter of days.

Funding through JustFund

JustFund litigation finance is available where the following criteria are met:

• The legal matter must involve the division of relationship property.

• There needs to be sufficient equity in the relationship property pool to meet JustFund’s criteria (usually funding can be offered up to a value of 25% of the anticipated relationship property entitlement).

• Real estate funds held in solicitor’s trust accounts and independently valued businesses can be considered part of the asset pool.

• In order to determine eligibility, JustFund considers the estimated legal costs, the likely settlement outcome and the Applicant’s financial position.

• Financial support from JustFund is available not only for legal fees but also for associated costs including expert fees, living expenses and other expenses including school fees and settlement funding.

Applying for Litigation Funding

• You can apply at any stage of a separation process or family law dispute.

• You repay your legal fees only when the dispute has been resolved and all matters have been settled with payment coming from your relationship property settlement.

• Eligibility is based on circumstances and is not dependent on your income or employment situation.

• The JustFund model has been specifically designed to support people going through the difficulties of a separation and in order to give them confidence to move forward and secure a fair outcome.

Current Interest Rates and Fees

Interest rates currently range between 9.9% and 12.9% depending on the category of any particular case.  There are also credit application, legal assessment and administration fees which vary depending on the level of legal costs involved (all only payable upon resolution of relationship property matters).

Summary

The Turner Hopkins Family Law team are fully aware how stressful and costly family law and relationship property disputes can be.  We believe that our partnership with JustFund will enable any clients to receive the very best representation without the pressure of incurring significant costs just at a time when they are least able to do so.