“No win, no fee”/ Conditional Fee Agreement
If we are confident that you have a good medical negligence compensation claim, we will offer to act for you on a “no win, no fee” basis.
This means that as long as you stick to certain obligations under the “no win, no fee” agreement, you will not be charged unless we succeed in securing compensation through an out of court decision or through court proceedings. If we don’t win your claim, there is no fee, hence “no win, no fee”.
If we win your case, your opponent will pay a contribution to the expenses we have incurred and our fees for acting for you in addition to your compensation. We charge you a ‘success fee’ for the risk we have taken in not getting paid at all if you had lost. However, as long as you stick to your obligations under our agreement, we agree to cap all deductions from the compensation at 20%. This deduction includes the success fee, a premium for insurance if applicable and unrecovered costs, including VAT.
There are some specific eventualities in which you may win your claim, but the court may decide that you should pay a proportion of your opponent’s legal costs out of your compensation. We can arrange insurance with a leading insurer at a competitive premium to safeguard against this risk within the 20% cap. If you choose to apply for additional insurance (known as top-up cover) at a later stage of your claim, this will not be included in the cap.
It is always our intention that our clients receive the maximum benefit from their compensation.
Legal Expenses Insurance
You may have an insurance policy to fund the legal fees involved in bringing a medical negligence claim. In fact, many people do not realise that they have the benefit of this kind of insurance. Frequently this is an “add-on”, often without charge, to a policy primarily designed to cover some other risk and is often found in the following policies:
- Home insurance or home contents policies
- Car insurance policies
- Credit card insurance
- Employer’s insurance policies
- Private healthcare insurance policies
- Personal accident insurance policies
It is essential that such cover is identified. If you do have a policy, we will be pleased to advise you on whether that policy is suitable. Sometimes although cover exists, the indemnity limits may be too low or claim type may be limited.
You do not have to accept the law firm recommended by your insurer. Contact us before you contact your insurer for independent advice from our specialist team.
Legal Aid
Legal Aid is now only available for medical negligence claims in which babies have suffered significant neurological injury under the age of 8 weeks. We have a franchise from the Legal Aid Agency to undertake legally aided medical negligence work.
We will let you know if we think an application for legal aid will be successful.
Private paying
If you would prefer to pay privately, we will let you have our full terms of business including our hourly rates.
We would be delighted to provide you a free, no obligation initial telephone consultation to discuss with your medical negligence compensation claim. If we think you have a strong medical negligence claim, we will find the most appropriate funding solution for you.
