New Zealand family lawyers are starting to treat third-party funding less as a last resort and more as a core business tool, particularly as fee recovery pressures continue to bite.
JustFund, the Australian-based family law funder and the country’s only dedicated family law finance provider, which launched from in New Zealand last year, has approved nearly $5 million in funding in its first year the company said in a media release, with 92 firms now accredited to use its model.
The pitch is straightforward: turn uncertain, often delayed fee recovery into secured revenue, with invoices paid within 24 hours once funding is approved.
For a practice area where matters frequently stall or are written down due to client cashflow constraints, the appeal is obvious. Funding is assessed against expected property settlements, shifting the risk profile away from firms carrying unpaid work or extending credit on increasingly thin margins.
Director of Family Law JustFund Lauren Milne (pictured) says firms are bringing funding into matters earlier, embedding it into client onboarding rather than waiting for payment issues to emerge.
The timing is not incidental. With 7,887 divorces recorded in 2025, which is up five percent from the previous year, and JustFund’s loan book growing 36 percent in the last quarter, demand is tracking both volume and financial strain.
The issue is less about income than liquidity, with borrowers ranging from no income to high earners. For firms, that distinction may be the difference between absorbing cost and securing it.
