Last month, UK-headquartered soft drinks company Nichols was hit with a legal fine in Pakistan. The PKR1.4m (US$13.8m) payout to its bottling partner in the country, Gul Bottlers, hit Nichols' bottom line hard. The ruling in Gul's favour carried echoes of David beating Goliath. Mark Beaumont, a director at UK-based law firm Annecto Legal, considers the well-established, yet little-known method of funding litigation that could help a slighted minnow chalk up a victory against a bigger partner.