Legal Costs FAQs

In this guide:

• Do I have to pay for any legal costs?
• How much compensation will I receive?
• You are recommending taking out this insurance policy, why is it so important?
• Do I have to take out this insurance policy for you to proceed with my case?
• Could I seek appropriate insurance from somewhere else?
• What other options do I have to pay for my claim?
• How do you assess the amount that you charge me?
• Will I need to pay for any expenses in addition to your fees?
• Are there any other fees that I might have to pay you?
• How much does a success fee cost?
• Will I need to pay anything before my case has finished?
• If I win my case, will I have to pay you any costs?
• How do I know that your costs are reasonable?
• Can you guarantee that I will not be charged if I lose my case?
• If I lose the case, will I have to pay my opponent's legal costs?

• In what circumstances, if I lose the case, will I have to pay some or all of my opponent’s legal costs?

   

Do I have to pay for any legal costs?

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.

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 if you comply with the terms and conditions. We will do all we can to make your case a successful one but, if there are no alternative methods of funding available, we would recommend a Conditional Fee Agreement and insurance to protect you. 

When you instruct us to investigate a claim on your behalf, you take on primary responsibility for the legal costs. There are several types of costs involved, and we will explain each of these to you in detail. In most cases, your opponent will be responsible for paying the majority of the main costs if your claim is successful.

There are certain costs that we cannot recover from the other side. If your claim is successful, these costs would need to be paid from the compensation you receive. If this applies to your case, we will give you an estimate of these costs in advance.

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How much compensation will I receive?

It is impossible to say exactly how much compensation you will receive as it depends on so many factors. In most cases, 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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You are recommending taking out this insurance policy, why is it so important?

The 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 would pay those 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 comply with the terms and conditions. If you lose your claim, you don’t pay any insurance premium and if you win your case, you will be asked to pay the insurance premium out of your compensation, though in medical negligence cases, some of the premium is payable by your opponent, and in mesothelioma cases, the insurance premium is recoverable from your opponent.  

This insurance offers you excellent protection against any unexpected costs.

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Do I have to take out this insurance policy for you to proceed with my case?

You do not have to take out the insurance policy for us to proceed with your case, but we may not be able to enter into a Conditional Fee Agreement without this.

With the insurance policy we are able to offer you the guarantee that there is no financial risk to you if you are unsuccessful, as long as you comply with the terms and conditions.

If we agree to represent you without insurance in place, we would normally have to ask for you to pay for any disbursements we may incur in advance. 

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Could I seek appropriate insurance from somewhere else?

The insurance policy that we recommended was designed specifically to protect you in all eventualities that may arise in your claim. You are free to explore other arrangements. We would then consider whether we can offer a Conditional Fee Agreement taking into account the cover offered by that alternative insurance. 

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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What other options do I have to pay for my claim?

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. This would change the Conditional Fee Agreement that we could offer if the insurer agreed to act and the cover was appropriate.

Legal Aid might be available for birth injury claims on behalf of children who suffered a serious neurological injury during pregnancy, or within eight weeks of their birth. We would offer you an alternative Conditional Fee Agreement for those cases.

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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How do you assess the amount that you charge me?

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.

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Will I need to pay for any expenses in addition to your fees?

You will not be expected to pay any expenses out of your own pocket as long as you follow the terms and conditions of your agreement with us. Some typical expenses we may need to incur include expert reports and court fees. These are known as disbursements, and they help your case progress.

If you win, you will usually 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. If you lose your case, then the disbursements will be paid for by the insurer.

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Are there any other fees that I might have to pay you?

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 and for funding the disbursements throughout your case on your behalf.

If your claim is successful, the success fee will be deducted from the compensation you receive. You are not able to recover a success fee from your opponent. The only exception is mesothelioma cases, where the success fee is paid by your opponent. 

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How much does a success fee cost?

The law sets a limit on success fees. A success fee cannot be more than 25% of the compensation you receive for your pain, suffering and loss of amenity, plus your past financial losses up to the point your claim is resolved, minus any “like‑for‑like” benefits you are required to repay.

It’s important to note that you only pay a success fee if your claim is successful.

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Will I need to pay anything before my case has finished?

You do not need to pay anything before your case has finished if you comply with the terms and conditions.

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. In some circumstances, your insurer may be unwilling to continue to insure your legal costs due for example to developments in your case. 

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 I win my case, will I have to pay you any costs?

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.

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How do I know that your costs are reasonable?

We only ever charge costs that we believe have been reasonably incurred. Our fees are designed to offer strong value for money, reflecting our specialist expertise, the complexity of the work involved, and our proven track record of achieving successful outcomes for our clients.

If at any point you are unhappy with the amount of costs you are being asked to pay, you have the right to ask the court to independently assess what is reasonable.

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Can you guarantee that I will not be charged if I lose my case?

If you enter into the Conditional Fee Agreement, take out the insurance policy and are compliant with their terms then you will not be charged if you are unsuccessful, if you comply with the terms and conditions.

Without insurance, you would be liable to pay for disbursements, but the insurance policy will cover this if you lose your case.

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If I lose the case, will I have to pay my opponent's legal costs?

If you follow our advice and your case is unsuccessful then you will not have to pay your opponent's legal costs, if you comply with the terms and conditions. The insurance policy that we have recommended is designed to protect you from the risks associated in your case.

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In what circumstances, if I lose the case, will I have to pay some or all of my opponent’s legal costs?

There are some circumstances in which, if you lose or do not beat an offer made by your opponent, you may be responsible for some or all of their legal costs.

Your opponent may make an offer to settle your claim, known as a Part 36 offer. If you do not accept this offer and later recover less than the amount they offered, the court can order you to pay your opponent’s legal costs from the date when you should reasonably have accepted the offer up to the point your case concludes. These costs can be significant and, in some cases, may be as much as the compensation you receive.

This is why we recommend taking out the insurance policy. If you follow our advice when deciding whether to accept or reject a Part 36 offer, the insurer will cover your opponent’s legal costs for this period, protecting you against this risk.

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, your claim is deemed to be fundamentally dishonest, 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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