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| guile |
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guile
Spanner Monkey
Joined: 20 Mar 2012
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| T.C |
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T.C
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Joined: 05 Nov 2003
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 Posted: 09:53 - 20 Feb 2013  Post subject: |
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Clearly the documentation sent out to you has not been explained which is a legal requirement of the Law Society, but if you are using a law firm instructed by legal expenses insurance or a claims management firm it does not surprise me.
A Conditional Fee Agreement (The proper name for a no win no fee) is the best way to fund a case.
It means that a proper risk assessment has been made and there is a better than 51% chance on the balance of probability of success of winning your case.
It also means that your solicitor can obtain after the event insurance which protects you in the event that it goes to trial and you were to lose. You do not get hit by big legal fees from the other side as the ATE will kick in and cover these costs.
It also means that your solicitor is going to fight your corner far more than if using legal expenses insurance because if your solicitor does not win your case, they get paid nothing other than the refund of their disbursements.
There are really only 2 occasions where you could be required to hand over money.
1. If it is shown that you have deliberately misled your solicitor into believing that your injuries were more serious than they actually were. For example if If you claimed a brain injury when in fact it was just a whiplash. This is because with the more serious injuries you are likely to have been put on a multi track where there is no cap to what can be done to fight your corner, whereas with a minor injury it would be a fast track case with fixed costs.
In these cases more work and cost has been incurred and therefore your solicitor is entitled to seek reimbursement of their reasonable costs.
2. If after several months you suddenly decided to drop the case and that meant that your solicitor had no reasonable prospect of recovering your costs. In these cases again your solicitor can seek reasonable costs for the work done so far.
That is the only time you are likely to be subjected to any fees.
Your solicitor should with a CFA in place fund everything. Medical records, police reports, Independent medical examination, ATE insurance, expert reports etc.
These costs along with their own fees are then claimed back from the third party at the conclusion of the case, together with a success fee of between 10% and 100% depending on the difficulty of the case. Fast track case success fees are capped at 10%.
This should have all been explained to you as a requirement of funding your case on a CFA. If you have not signed it yet (which I assume you haven't) then you are entitled (and in fact we advise) that you take it to someone like CAB who will explain it to you free of charge so that you fully understand it, and then your solicitor is also required to explain in person (which can also be over the phone) exactly what it all means.
And although you may feel that only Ambulance chasers use the CFA, the reality is that 99% of personal injury law firms use CFA's as it allows everyone regardless of their status to be represented and replaces Legal Aid which was withdrawn for personal injury cases in 2001 because Legal Aid was means tested. CFA's are not means tested.
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| fatjames |
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fatjames
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Joined: 09 Jul 2011
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| binge |
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binge
Emo Kiddy
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| T.C |
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T.C
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Posted: 11:36 - 20 Feb 2013  Post subject: |
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| fatjames wrote: | What he said. ^^
Keep in mind, you don't have to use them, you can shop around. Plenty of people will be able to make recommendations on here.
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Correct. I should have mentioned that recent case law has made it illegal for insurance companies to force policy holders to use only their panel firms, although some still try it on, but in these cases it os still possible to switch to a CFA with a firm of your choice.
In respect of settlement times.
Minor injuries - 12 - 18 months
Moderate Injuries - 18 - 36 months
Major or catastrophic injuries - 36 months +
If cases are settled quicker than these guidelines then that usually indicates that it has been under valued and they have gone for a quick settlement so that they get paid.
The reason for this is that in minor cases, it is considered that after 12 months, the injury should have healed fully, or if there are still ongoing problems, then a full longer term prognosis can be made which affects the level and value of compensation.
The claim is divided into 2 parts
General damages which is for the actual injuries sustained and includes a payment for pain and suffering
Special damages which includes all your out of pocket expenses, loss of earnings, damage and so on.
The 2 are then put together to give you your overall award.
Each injury has a specific value with values for minor, moderate and severe, and the importance of the independent medical examination later on is to fully determine which category your injury falls into.
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 13 years, 28 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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