Most of our injury cases operate on a no win no fee basis, under the Conditional fee Agreement (CFA) that means you only pay if your claim is successful. This way you can avoid financial risks and pursue the case with more confidence.
Damages based agreements are also a type of no win, no fee agreement. Under a CFA the solicitor will typically charge the client a success fee if the case is won. This success fee is calculated by reference to hours works, agreed upon in advance and is capped by the law to 25%. For example, if a client receives damages of £5000, the success fee will be £1250 inclusive of Vat.
With a DBA the client pays over a percentage share of the damages recovered to the legal team, so the fees are referenced to the amount recovered rather than the amount of time spent on the claim.
If your claim is unsuccessful, you may still have to pay your disbursements. Therefore, to protect you against this possibility it is recommend that you take out an insurance policy known as an ‘After-the-Event’ policy (ATE).
A&H Law Solicitors is regulated by CILEx Regulations, who is not a Designated Professional Body under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, therefore we have not been provided with the Part XX exemption to provide ancillary financial services such as recommended to or arrange to obtain an ATE Insurance.
However, Legal Expenses Insurance may be another route to protect you against having to pay our fees and any charges we incur in acting for you, such as medical fees and may also protect you against having to pay the legal fees and disbursements of your opponent. Legal Expenses Insurance is often contained within other types of insurance policies such as Home Contents or your motor policy. If you have any insurance policy, we advise that you check whether your policies or any policies belonging to your spouse or partner contain legal expenses insurance.
Disbursements that you will incur in a claim are medical reports, vehicle engineering report, counsel fees and court fees.
Depending on the type of medical report required, these can vary from £216 upwards. An example would be where an individual who suffered a whiplash injury in a Road Traffic Accident may only require a GP complied medico legal report. Such reports are fixed under the CPR 45 to £216 inclusive of Vat. However, where an individual who has suffered some bony injury such as fracture, they may require an orthopaedic report, which can again vary from £504 inclusive of Vat upwards. Specialist reports can cost more, these can region from £1500 plus vat upwards.
Engineers fee could be from £180 inclusive of Vat to £2500 inclusive of Vat. Engineers fee can vary as sometime the courts want both parties’ engineers to have a discussion report compiled. This report aids the court to narrow any issues relating to liability or causation.
Therefore, continuing from the above example, wherein the client received £5000 in damages, the success fee will be £1250 inclusive of Vat. If there are no complexity, the engineers report fee would have been £180 inclusive of Vat, medical report fee would be £216 inclusive of Vat. The claim was settled within the three years of limitation, therefore, no court fees had to be paid, the total clients bill be £1484 inclusive of Vat and disbursements. Subject to the Fault Party covering the disbursements on a successful outcome of the claim, the client will only pay £1250 from his damages. Should the Fault Party fail to pay any disbursements relating to the clients claim, the client will be liable to pay these from their damages.
Sometimes a claim can take longer than 3 years. In such case, the matter will need to be issued into the court to protect the claim from becoming statute barred. A case is statute barred when the claim is not settled before the expiry of the 3 years limitation, or not issued in court to be protect, and goes past the 3 years limitation. In such situation a claim cannot continue. However, we will ensure that the claim is issued protectively to avoid it becoming statute barred.
When a case is issued in court, a fee is required to be paid. Depending on the value of the claim, this can vary from £35 to £10,000.
At A&H Law Solicitors, we always make on behalf of the client, a help with fees application to see whether they qualify for a fee remission. If you qualify, this will keep your disbursements low.
