CHAMPERTY, slaim'pOr-tI, or CHAM PARTY ((W. champart. from :Med. Lat. Ca //1. 11 pirS. ounportagilINI, front Lat. part of the field. from division of lands). .A bargain between the plaintiff or defendant in a suit, and a third party, generally a lawyer. that the latter shall have part of the land. debt, or other thing sued for, in the e‘ent of success. and that in the meantime he -hall carry on the suit at his own expense. This practice has heen strietly forbid len by statute in England from very early times 13 Edward 1. e. 25; 13 Edward 1. c. 49: etc.) and in scotland the rule of the civil law by which the paetum de quo,/ lit is was held to be ;I and as such void, has all along been part of the common law. Such prac were also forbidden by statute to members of the college of justice (1594 e. 216). There is this difference between the laws of the two countries. however, that whereas in England the offense has always been punished criminally, in scodand the only penalty which it entails, beyond nullity of the bargain. is deprivation of office.
According to Blackstone, the word "signifies the purchasing of a suit, or a right of suing—a prac tice so much abhorred by our law that it is one main reason why a chose in action, or thing of which one hath the right but not the posses sion, is not assignable at common law• because no man should purchase any pretense to sue in another'- right." In many of the United States, however. cham pertous agreement, are authorized by statute; and. Loth in England and in this country. the prevailing tendency is toward freedom of con tract between litigant and lawyer, and between the owner of a chose in act ion (q.v.) and any one who is willing to buy it. See MAINTENANCE.