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| champerty | | Date Created: Jun 20, 2005, 07:34 AM |
 Walter Olson's Overlawyered.com has posted a story about wealthy Detroit casino developers, Marian and Michael Ilitch, who are apparently funding people claiming to be the tribe of Shinnecock Indians. These developers, er, Indians are filing lawsuits claiming to own areas including the Hamptons. In exchange for this support, the Ilitch's and a real estate developer named Michael Malik expect to get a share of the action should the Indians prevail.
This is bad enough, but the interesting thing was learning a new word for this behavior where litigants have a vested interest in the outcome of the dispute.
champerty
champerty (CHAM-puhr-tee) noun
Aiding in a lawsuit in return for a share in the proceeds.
[From Middle English champartie, from Middle French champart (part of the field: a feudal lord's share of his tenant's crop), from champ (field), from Latin campus (field) + part.]
A related term is barratry, the stirring up of baseless lawsuits.
"Champerty, which is illegal in many, but not all, states, occurs when someone helps pay the costs of someone else's lawsuit in exchange for a share of any proceeds." Wade Lambert and Arthur S Hayes; Investing in Patents to File Suits is Curbed; The Wall Street Journal (New York); May 30, 1990.
"Maconochie had been using a British Virgin Islands company called North-South to raise money to take on the bank without breaching the rule of champerty and maintenance. This bans individuals from seeking outside financial help to finance their cases." Mark Westfield; Mac Attack to Tap Backers; The Australian (Sydney); Sep 22, 2000.
CHAMPERTY - A bargain with a plaintiff or defendant, campum partire, to divide the land or other matter sued for between them if they prevail at law, the champertor undertaking to carry on the suit at his own expense.
This offence differs from maintenance in that in the latter the person assisting the suitor receives no benefit, while in the former he receives one half, or other portion, of the thing sued for. This was an offence in the civil law. To maintain a defendant may be champerty.
While elements of champerty remain violations of law or attorney ethics, the prohibitions have been greatly relaxed in modern times and generally now prohibit only the attorney formally covering all costs of an action.
CHAMPERTOR - One who makes pleas or suits, or causes them to be moved, either directly or indirectly, and sues them at his proper costs, upon condition of having a part of the gain.
It would seem that the term for "frivolous lawsuits" should be "barratry" and that contingency fee lawyering by plaintiff attorneys is "champerty".
But apparently under the "what the definition of is is" clause, it depends on who gets to define the terms of the law. Words don't mean what they say if there's money or political power to be gained. If you're a plaintiff attorney doing all this good work for the poor and common people to have their day in court, then it isn't a vested interest in the outcome; it isn't champerty. |
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