BERMUDA Law and Practice Contributed by: Michael Hanson, Keith Robinson, Sam Stevens and Kyle Masters, Carey Olsen Bermuda Limited
2.4 Minimum and Maximum Amounts of Third-Party Funding There are no minimum or maximum amounts a third party will fund. 2.5 Types of Costs Considered Under Third-Party Funding The costs a third-party funder will consider fund- ing is entirely a matter between the funder and the party accepting the funding. 2.6 Contingency Fees Contingency fees are prohibited by the Barris- ters’ Code of Professional Conduct 1981, Rule 96. 2.7 Time Limit for Obtaining Third-Party Funding There are no time limits with regard to when a party to litigation should obtain third-party fund- ing. Unlike the modern English Civil Procedural Rules, the Rules of the Supreme Court 1985 (the “Rules”) do not impose a rigid pre-action proto- col on parties. However, parties to litigation are required, pursuant to the overriding objective set out in Order 1A of the Rules, to assist the court to (among other things) identify issues at an early stage and save expense. To this end, particularly in civil proceedings, parties will typically engage in pre-action correspondence and discussions prior to the issuance of proceedings. Ultimately, the court is entitled to take into account the reasonableness of the conduct of the parties to any action when determining the issue of costs. Parties who have failed to assist 3. Initiating a Lawsuit 3.1 Rules on Pre-action Conduct
the court in discharging the overriding objective may be at risk of having their entitlement to costs discounted. 3.2 Statutes of Limitations Applicable limitation periods are set out in the Limitation Act 1984. Claims for breach of a con- tract and in tort are subject to a limitation peri- od of six years. A party bringing a claim based on a contract under seal must do so within 20 years. A 20-year limitation period also applies to claims concerning the recovery of land and the proceeds of the sale of land, or monies secured by a mortgage or a charge. In contract law, the limitation period typically runs from the date on which the contract was breached. For a tort, the limitation period com- mences on the date the damage occurred. For claims in defamation, the start of the limitation period is the date of publication. The Limitation Act 1984 makes provision for latent defects, as well as for cases where the cause of action could not, with reasonable inves- tigation, have been discovered sooner. Limitation is not an automatic bar to an action or recovery under it. A defendant must raise the Limitation Act 1984 as a defence and specifically plead the same. 3.3 Jurisdictional Requirements for a Defendant When determining whether or not a proposed defendant is subject to its jurisdiction, the Bermuda court will consider whether the pro- posed defendant can be validly served within the Islands of Bermuda or whether a defendant has submitted, or has agreed to submit, to the jurisdiction of the Bermuda courts (for example by contract or by taking steps in the litigation
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