Global divorce funder heading Down Under … while British commercial law shops are hauling offshore loot back to London 

The Economist reports that Novitas has about 1,500 divorce litigants on its books, with loans at 18 percent. Applicants say they are expecting to “win” assets worth three times their borrowings. 

US divorce funder BBL Churchill Group says it is lending at 16 percent and its average loan is $US306,000 in New York and less in other states. Defaults are running at a modest two percent. 

The Iceberg Partnership is also in the business of cramming money down the throats of intending divorcees in England, and to protect against loan defaults it transfers the risk to the law firms that refer clients for funding. 

NDC says it “invests” in divorce cases by making non-recourse cash advances. It’s president is Nicole Noonan, who is described as the “Fairy godmother of divorce”. 

In the UK, legal aid has largely departed the divorce field, pushing more and more desperate souls into the arms of the 18 percenters. The judges are happy about this because it reduces the volume of angry and obsessed self-represented litigants. 

Here are readers’ outraged comments about the gouging interest rates.  

While we’re with The Economist and news from London, a letter to the editor from Alasdair Douglas, the chair of the City of London Law Society, spells out the economic benefits to the sceptered isle of the global expansion of common lawism.  

Alasdair waxed about the brilliance of partners of the great London commercial law shops who, “started investing their own money in foreign offices and banging the international drum for the use of English law 40 years ago …”

“With that investment, the international practise of law is one of the few British business sectors where we can claim to be a world leader with commercial firms generating one percent of Britain’s GDP and a trade surplus of over £3 billion.” 

It’s so good to know that we’re doing our bit for the Limeys’ trade surplus.