Champarty

Champarty, or CHAMPERTY (a Norman-French word derived from campi pars = the right of the feudal lord to take part of the produce of land cultivated by his tenants), means in English law a bargain whereby the one party is to assist the other in recovering property, and is to share in the proceeds. All such bargains are illegal, and therefore null and void. More particularly an agreement to advance funds, or supply evidence, or professional assistance, for remuneration contingent on success, and proportional to, or to be paid out of property recovered, is illegal; so is a purchase by a solicitor from his client of the subject matter of a pending suit; so is every such purchase, if the real object is only to enable the purchaser to maintain the suit. A man may, however, lawfully sell evidence, and may lawfully purchase an interest in property, though adverse claims exist which make litigation necessary for realising that interest. 'The sale of a mere right to sue is bad, the right to complain of a fraud is not a marketable commodity.' Champarty, as one form of Maintenance (q.v.), was made criminal by various old English statutes, but these are never enforced, and the Criminal Law Commission recommended their repeal. In Scotland there is no law against maintenance and champarty. There is a common-law doctrine against what were in the Roman law called pacta de quotâ litis—i.e. purchases of litigations by professional men connected with the suit, who thus had exceptional advantages in making such a contract. But this would not probably be held to strike against an agreement by a non-professional person to advance funds for litigation on terms depending on the result, provided the terms were not extortionate or unconscionable. A Scottish act of 1594 prohibits the purchases of pleas by advocates or agents. In both countries a solicitor can lawfully agree to charge nothing except in event of success; and by recent statute, agreements for the division of profits between town and country agents are made legal. Although there are traces of the law of champarty in the United States, the American law resembles that of Scotland more than that of England. Contracts by solicitors for contingent fees, to the extent even of one-half the property in dispute, have been sustained. In general, however, the American law construes professional contracts as merely giving security for the true worth of the services rendered.