We've discussed the funding options for your personal injury claim with you and have advised you that your best option is to enter into a Conditional Fee Agreement (“CFA”) with Irwin Mitchell.
We fully understand that you may have a number of questions which need some answers. We often hear similar questions from our clients at the beginning of their legal journey, which we've answered here. This will explain to you how a conditional fee agreement works and also the reasons for taking out insurance.
We believe the best option for you is to enter into a Conditional Fee Agreement and also recommend that you take out an insurance policy alongside this called Litigate.
This means that if you are unsuccessful in your case then you don’t have to pay any costs and there is no financial risk to you. We will do all we can to make your case a successful one but always recommend a Conditional Fee Agreement and insurance to protect our clients.
When you instruct us to investigate a claim on your behalf you become primarily responsible for the legal costs but if you win your case then we aim to recover the majority of these costs from your opponent.
There are some costs that we cannot recover and on those occasions it would be paid out of any compensation awarded to you.
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We set chargeable rates which apply to each hour of work that we spend on your case. The rates that apply on your case will be set out in your Conditional Fee Agreement.
There are different bands of rates which will depend on the experience of the solicitor you have working on your case at that time.
As your claim progresses we will keep you updated of the chargeable rates throughout and with a Conditional Fee Agreement and Litigate insurance you will not have to pay anything if your claim is not successful.
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You don’t have to pay for expenses out your own pocket. The typical expenses that we incur are expert reports, or court fees and we call these disbursements that are used to help your case progress.
If you win, you will recover these disbursements from your opponent and if any of these costs aren’t paid by your opponent, they’ll be paid for by your insurance policy, Litigate. If you lose your case, then the disbursements will be paid for by the insurer.
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When you enter a Conditional Fee Agreement we have to assess the chances of winning or losing your case from the information we have gathered.
This assessment allows us to determine what is known as a success fee. We have a success fee to compensate us for the risk of investigating in your case and it being unsuccessful.
If we win then the success fee will have to be met from the compensation you’ve been awarded. If you are unsuccessful then it will be covered by your insurance.
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There is a legal limit on a success fee and the law states that it cannot exceed 25% of the amount that you are rewarded for your pain, suffering, loss of amenity and the total amount of your past financial losses up to the point of settlement.
It is important to remember that you don’t pay this fee unless you have successfully concluded your claim.
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You are not able to recover a success fee from your opponent, it comes from any compensation that you are awarded.
We will always be transparent with you and with any legal costs that we ask you to pay you can ask the court to assess what they think the level of the success fee should be.
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You do not need to pay anything before your case has finished unless there are issues which go against the Conditional Fee Agreement.
If you decide to end the agreement for whatever reason then you may be liable for some of the costs. Alternately if you don’t comply with the obligations under the agreement then we could decide to terminate it early.
This is very rare but could happen if you mislead us or if we advise you to settle your case and choose to ignore that advice. At this point we would be entitled to ask you to pay our legal fees and disbursements up to that point but we would discuss it with you and aim to come to a resolution.
If you win your case then any costs that you are asked to pay will be paid for by your opponent when you receive your compensation.
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If we win your case, we aim to recover the majority of your costs from your opponent.
There are some costs that we can’t recover from your opponent, but that are necessary to allow us to progress your case. In addition, we’ll recover the success fee and the premium on your insurance policy we take out for you.
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We only ever charge you the costs that we think have been reasonably incurred and believe our fees are very competitive given our expertise and our success in the past.
If you are ever unhappy with the amount of costs you are being asked to pay, you can ask the court to assess what they believe is a reasonable amount.
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If you enter into the Conditional Fee Agreement, take out the Litigate insurance policy and are compliant with their terms then you will not be charged if you are unsuccessful.
Without insurance, you would be liable to pay for disbursements but the Litigate policy will cover this if you lose your case.
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If you follow our advice and your case is unsuccessful then you will not have to pay your opponent's legal costs. The Litigate insurance policy that we have recommended is designed to protect you from the risks associated in your case.
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We may be successful in your case but fail to beat an offer made by your opponent. If this happens then your opponent can make you an offer to settle your case. We call this a Part 36 offer.
If you subsequently fail to recover more than that offer, you can be ordered to pay you opponent’s legal costs. These can be substantial and can be up to the amount of compensation you have recovered.
This is why we recommend taking out the Litigate insurance policy and provided you have rejected that offer in line with our advice, then the insurer will pay out your opponen'ts legal costs during this period.
There are other circumstances, although they don’t happen very often. The court could decide that you don’t have reasonable grounds in which to bring your claim or you have acted unreasonably.
While unlikely, the court could decide that your claim was fraudulent and in those circumstances the insurers would not pay out so you would be personally liable for those costs.
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The Litigate insurance policy is here to protect you from the day you instruct us to investigate your claim to the day it is settled. There are many ways it can help throughout the case and is not just there to cover legal costs if the case is unsuccessful.
It may be that we win your case but throughout the course of the claim we may need to make applications to the court. If you failed with an application, you would be ordered to pay your opponent's costs relating to this.
We might make an application for an interim payment on your behalf and if it was unsuccessful you would have to pay your opponent's costs. As long as the application was made on our advice, then your insurers under Litigate would pay any of your opponent’s costs.
We incur disbursements as we go through your claim, and if we don’t recover all of these from your opponent your insurance will meet any shortfall. If you lose your claim, you don’t pay any insurance premium and it’s waived and if you win your case, you will be ordered to pay the insurance premium out of your compensation.
This is clearly worth it and offers you excellent protection against any unexpected costs.
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You do not have to take out the Litigate insurance policy for us to proceed with your case but it would change the terms of the Conditional Fee Agreement that we are able to offer you.
With the insurance policy we are able to offer you the guarantee that there is no financial risk to you if you are unsuccessful and we simply cannot offer you that guarantee if you do not take it out.
We would have to ask for you to pay for any disbursements we may incur in advance.
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The insurance policy that we recommended was designed specifically to protect you in all eventualities that may arise in your claim and you are unlikely to find the same policy elsewhere but you are free to explore other arrangements.
If you do that there may be some delays in progressing your claim and we may need to make a charge for some of the work that we do, in sourcing alternative insurance and then dealing with those insurers.
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It is important to remember that it is highly unlikely that any problem will arise with legal costs and we will keep you updated and advised throughout your case.
We believe that by entering into a Conditional Fee Agreement with the Litigate insurance policy, that it offers you the best protection against any costs that you may be ordered to pay throughout your case and there will be no financial risk to you if you are unsuccessful in your case.
The success fee, which is capped at 25% and the insurance premium, will need to be paid for out of your compensation after settlement, apart from in Clinical Negligence cases, where we should be able to recover a significant proportion of that from your opponent.
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It is impossible to say exactly how much compensation you will receive as it depends on so many factors. There is no simple tariff of compensation and the same injury may affect two different people in two completely different ways.
It really depends on how it has affected you, in terms of your ability to go to work, to enjoy activities you used to enjoy, and in terms of your future care needs. As we learn more about your case we’ll be able to give you some more accurate advice on the amount of compensation.
We have a very strong reputation built on achieving the maximum amount of compensation and providing the very best rehabilitation for our clients supporting you every step of the way.
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Although the majority of personal injury claims are funded through a no win no fee agreement, there are other funding options available.
Legal Expenses Insurance is often included on household insurance policies, and may cover some or all of the legal costs involved in making a personal injury claim.
Legal Aid is available for birth injury claims on behalf of children who suffered a serious neurological injury during pregnancy, or within eight weeks of their birth.
Our solicitors are very experienced in assessing whether you already have cover, and advising on the best funding option available to you.
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