costs
costs
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of any legal claim is what it might cost. Personal injury claims can take a long time and lawyers are not cheap. On the plus side almost no personal injury claims ever come to trial - most are settled at some stage during the proceedings. There is also usually now the open of instructing a solicitor to act for you on a No Win No Fee basis - see below.
The first thing to do is to get a solicitor to advise on whether you do in fact have a valid claim. Our solicitors will do this for free - either on the phone or by email (click here for a free assessment). If the answer is "yes" then the next thing to discuss is costs. Bear in mind that legal aid is no longer available to pursue personal injury claims. Also remember that if you are successful in your claim you should get all, or most, of your solicitor's costs paid for you by the other party.
There are basically three ways to fund a claim for compensation
Private Fee Paying
You agree to be personally responsible for the costs and
disbursements that your solicitor clocks up during the claim. Most
solicitors now charge an hourly fee for their time - the more senior the
person working on the case the more they are likely to charge, and there may
be a number of different people who work on your case, from partners,
through associate solicitors, assistant solicitors, legal executives,
trainee solicitors and paralegals. Each will have their own hourly charging
rate and they will book all the time they spend on your case against your
file - this includes for example drafting documents and letters, research,
telephone calls, reading letters and interviewing yourself and others
involved in the case. Hourly rates vary from about £60 per hour up to
possibly £300/£400 per hour for the most experienced partners in big City
firms.
In addition your solicitor will also have to make payments to others on your
behalf (disbursements) for such things as medical reports, expert witness
reports, police reports and probably barrister's fees for an expert opinion
on the strengths and weaknesses of your case, drafting proceedings (if
necessary), and advice on the sort of sum you should expect to receive if
successful. Most solicitors will ask you to cover these costs as the case
proceeds, or even pay in a sum of money on account of these costs.
It is not difficult to see that it is quite easy to run up a bill
for several hundred, if not thousands of pounds, in a relatively short space
of time. The best way to keep this under control is to ask your solicitor to
advise you at the outset how much they think your case is likely to cost and
then to advise you each time your costs reach a specific level - say every
£1,000. Some solicitors may be prepared to allow the costs to continue to
add up, but most will ask you to make regular payments on account towards
the final bill.
If you are successful in your claim then your solicitor should get all or
most of his costs, and all the disbursements, paid by the other side (or
their insurers), which will leave you with the balance of the compensation
to come to you.
The downside is that should you lose your case, or pull out before the
trial, then you are likely to be responsible not only for your own costs,
but also for the other party's costs.
Conditional Fee
Agreement - so-called No Win No Fee
Until just a few years ago solicitors were not allowed by the Law Society
(the solicitors' governing body) to accept instructions from any client on
the basis that they would be paid only if their client was successful in
their action. Such "contingency fees" have long been the norm in
the United States and elsewhere, but the Law Society were concerned that
such an arrangement would prejudice solicitors as they would have a stake in
their client's claim.
However with the demise of Legal Aid contingency fees are now positively encouraged as the way forward in litigation matters.
When discussing costs ask your solicitor if they are prepared to take on your case on a "No Win No Fee" basis (what your solicitor will call a Conditional Fee arrangement). They do not have to accept it. Some solicitors do not accept any instructions under this type of payment scheme. Those that do will want to assess the likelihood of you winning your claim, as they are staking their time and their fees on you being successful. If they indicate that they are prepared to consider your case on a "No Win No Fee" basis they will usually arrange an initial meeting at which they will take all the details from you, so that they can assess your case. Only once they have made this assessment will they decide whether to offer you a Conditional Fee Agreement.
Under such an agreement you will only be responsible for your solicitor's fees if you win (although they will usually then be paid by the other party). These will be in two parts - the basic fee (what you would normally pay) and the success fee (an agreed percentage increase on the basic fee - the riskier your case the higher this percentage will be). All these details will be contained within a written Conditional Fee Agreement, which should be explained to you in full. It is up to you whether you want to accept your solicitor's proposals.
However such an agreement does not usually mean that you will not have to pay anything. You will usually be asked to pay any expenses that incur as your case proceeds - such as court fees, medical report fees and police accident report fees (likely to be a few hundred pounds), and make a one-off insurance premium payment (can be as little as £100) to cover your opponent's costs and your own expenses if you lose.
If you sign the agreement and win your case you will receive agreed compensation from the other party. Your solicitor's basic fees, their success fee and your expenses, including the insurance premium, should all be paid.
Should you lose you will not have to pay your solicitor anything, and your insurance will cover the other party's legal fees and the expenses you have paid in bringing your claim.
Don't be afraid to ask your solicitor to
take your case on on a "No Win No Fee" basis.
Legal Expenses Insurance
Make sure that your potential claim is not covered by some form of
insurance cover that you have. The majority of car insurance policies now
have an option of an additional sum which provides you with legal expenses
insurance cover to help you recover your "uninsured losses"
(anything but the car itself), and many household policies now have a
similar option. Alternatively you may have taken out a specific legal
expenses insurance policy for just a circumstance. Most insurers allow you
to instruct any solicitor of your choosing, but some insist that you use
their own (they can only do this up to the date proceedings are issued). Try
and resist this and find a good personal injury lawyer close to you.
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Last updated
24/07/07
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