What does champertous mean?
Champertous is a legal adjective used to describe agreements that amount to champerty — the practice of supporting another person's lawsuit in exchange for a share of the winnings, despite having no original stake in the dispute. Historically, both maintenance (interfering in others' litigation) and champerty were treated as serious offences, seen as fuelling quarrelsome, speculative lawsuits; contracts deemed champertous were therefore void and unenforceable at common law. The word appears almost entirely within legal contexts, in phrases such as 'a champertous agreement' or 'void as champertous'. Today, with litigation funding by professional financiers widely accepted under regulation in many jurisdictions, the term survives chiefly in older case law and doctrinal discussion, retaining a faintly disapproving tone that suggests profiteering from someone else's grievance.
adjectiveOf an agreement or arrangement, constituting or relating to champerty: the unlawful practice whereby a person with no interest in a lawsuit agrees to help carry it on in exchange for a share of the proceeds.
- Relating to or constituting champerty: describing an agreement in which someone without an existing interest in litigation supports it financially in return for a share of any recovery.
"The court struck down the funding arrangement as champertous because the financier stood to take half of any damages awarded."
"The judge ruled that the contingency fee was excessive and the underlying contract champertous."
"Critics argued that the third-party funding deal was champertous, encouraging speculative litigation for profit."
For centuries, bankrolling someone else's lawsuit could land you in trouble for being 'champertous' — and its family tree leads straight back to the Latin word for battlefield.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of champertous
Champertous derives from champerty, which entered English via Anglo-Norman French from the medieval Latin term for the practice of dividing the fruits of a lawsuit. The root is ultimately the Latin campus, meaning 'field', which also gave English champion, campaign, and champagne — all originally connected to open fields or fighting grounds. The adjective form developed in English legal usage alongside the doctrine it named.
Related word forms
How champertous is actually used
A technical legal term, found almost exclusively in legal writing and historical discussions of the doctrines of maintenance and champerty. It carries a pejorative connotation of profiteering from another person's dispute. Its force has weakened in modern jurisdictions where litigation funding is now regulated and often lawful.
Easily confused with champertous
"Champers" is British slang for champagne, whereas "champertous" describes an improper legal financing arrangement.