The etymology is interesting: From AHD:
champerty

SYLLABICATION: cham·per·ty
PRONUNCIATION: chmpr-t
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. cham·per·ties
A sharing in the proceeds of a lawsuit by an outside party who has promoted the litigation.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English champartie, from Old French champart, the lord's share of the tenant's crop, from Medieval Latin campars, camppars : Latin camp, genitive of campus, field + Latin pars, part; see part.
OTHER FORMS: champer·tous (-ts) —ADJECTIVE

the lord's share of the tenant's crop

Completely unrelated to faldage.

A sharing in the proceeds of a lawsuit by an outside party who has promoted the litigation. Kind of a low thing to do, in my opinion.

The outside party may have put up the money to bring the law suit.

just another form of investment, eh?

Yeah, it's that "sharing in the proceeds" that makes it low, IMO. If somebody lacked the funds to file a justifiable suit, I wouldn't mind donating money if I were able. But I can't imagine filing a lawsuit strictly for personal gain.

I have a suspicion that the "product liability" lawsuits
which destroyed the small aircraft manufacturers represents
a way in which champerty can be against the public interest.
A man I knew of was drinking with some friends close to midnight when a girl said she had never flown at night. So he gallantly offered to give her a flight immediately. The
plane crashed killing all aboard. The widow was solicited
to sue the aircraft manufacturer, and did so, just because
she needed money so badly. I don't think she got any money,
but the aircraft manufacturer got stuck with cost of defense
of a suit that should not have been allowed, because it was
so clear that the pilot had been intoxicated.

Let's remember that, strictly speaking, it's champerty that brings the courts to the little guy. Think about the typical car accident victim - you can be sure, most of the time, that his attorney is being paid on a contingency basis. In other words, the attorney doesn't get paid unless the plaintiff gets an award at trial. The attorney takes a big chance that she won't get paid for her time and effort, and the plaintiff/victim gets a shot at compensation without taking the big financial risk of losing. This is also beneficial to the system - a contingency fee attorney won't take a case unless it's a pretty strong one, because it otherwise wouldn't be worth the almost certain financial loss.

dsw

DSW