Before bringing a personal injury claim, you need to consider how the claim will be funded.
No Win No Fee Agreement
We offer a free initial assessment of your claim so that we can consider its strengths and merits. We will discuss all funding options but most commonly, would offer you a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), otherwise known as a “no win no fee” agreement. We advise you obtain an ATE (After The Event), insurance policy, which we can apply for on your behalf.
There are no upfront costs with a CFA but if you are successful, you are liable to pay costs that we cannot recover from your opponent such as the ATE insurance premium. Our costs are otherwise recoverable from your opponent. However, deducted from your damages will be a success fee which is currently capped at a maximum of 25% of the amount awarded for your pain, suffering and losses. Before settling a claim, we will calculate the level of success fee which will be deducted from your award.
If you are unsuccessful and you have taken out ATE insurance, we will not charge you for the work we have carried out nor will you pay the disbursements incurred (these are expenses such as experts’ fees). Your opponent’s costs are normally also covered by an ATE policy.
The other methods of funding are:
Legal Expense Insurance (LEI) – we will ask you to check any insurance policies you already hold for your home, car, travel or with your bank. You may have LEI with an insurance policy that might cover pursuing a personal injury claim. This will of course depend on the level of cover but we would be happy to look at your policy documents and advise whether LEI is in place.
LEI is known as “Before The Event Insurance”, or “BTE Insurance”, because the cover was taken out prior to the date of the negligent action.
Trade Union Membership – If you are a member of a trade union, one of the benefits may be that they will fund your personal injury claim. However, the exact nature of this funding and how it works may be different for each trade union.
