Champerty Definition
chămpər-tē
champerties
noun
A sharing in the proceeds of a lawsuit by an outside party who has funded or assisted in funding the litigation.
American Heritage
An act or proceeding by which a person who is not concerned in a lawsuit makes a bargain with one of the litigants to help maintain the costs of the suit in return for a share of any proceeds: illegal in most states.
Webster's New World
(law) Investing money into an individual’s law suit.
Wiktionary
verb
An agreement between a litigant and a person who is not a party to the action, including the litigant’s lawyer, for that person to pursue or financially support the litigant’s claim in exchange for a portion of any damages awarded. The practice was once prohibited by the common law and it is still forbidden in some states, thereby casting doubt on the legality of lawyers advancing costs for their clients, as in the payment of expert witness fees.
To financially support or otherwise maintain or promote another person’s claim.
Webster's New World Law
Other Word Forms of Champerty
Noun
Singular:
champerty
Plural:
champertiesOrigin of Champerty
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From Middle English champartie, from Middle French champart (“field rent – portion of produce of field paid to feudal lord”), probably from Latin campī (“fields”) pars (“part”), with first term in turn from Proto-Indo-European *kamp- (“to bend; crooked”). Compare modern English campus and French champ (“field”).
From Wiktionary
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Middle English champartie from Old French champart the lord's share of the tenant's crop from Medieval Latin campars, campīpars Latin campī genitive of campus field Latin pars part part
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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