Funding Options

We recognize that one of the most important aspects of your decision whether to pursue a claim for compensation will be your concern about meeting costs.

We are always happy to have an initial discussion in our offices, at your home or over the telephone to explain the range of options open and so that you can judge for yourself our approach, commitment and expertise and we can establish the extent to which we are able to help you.

The funding options that may be available to you are :-

• Public Funding (Legal Aid)
• Conditional Fee Agreement (no win-no fee)
• Legal expense insurance
• Private fee paying
• Contingency Fee Agreement
• Trade Union help

Public Funding
For most personal injury claims public funding is no longer available. It is still possible to obtain public funding for clinical negligence cases subject to financial qualification. For other personal injury claims it is only available for claims involving a very high level of expense.

Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA)
We will offer you a free appointment at the outset to enable us to assess the strength of your potential claim and if, in our opinion, you have a good case we may offer to represent you using a no win-no fee arrangement. This is an agreement where we act for you on the basis that we do not get paid if your claim is unsuccessful. To balance that risk, we are entitled to charge a bonus (success fee) on top of our normal costs if the claim does succeed. Since April 2000 it should be possible to claim that success fee from the losing side’s insurers. The success fee is agreed by us with you at the outset and will differ dependent upon the type of case and the prospect of success.
With a CFA if proceedings are issued you are also exposed to having to pay the other side’s costs if the claim in unsuccessful. We therefore arrange for you to purchase an insurance policy which protects you from having to pay those costs in the event of your claim being unsuccessful. Since April 2000 it should be possible to recover the insurance premium from the other side upon successful conclusion of the claim.

Legal Expense Insurance
A variety of insurance policies now exist providing cover both before and after the event.
After the event insurance policies can be purchased after the accident which leads to the insurance claim. These policies provide cover for your costs and your opponents costs if your claim does not succeed. A range of policies exist and we will provide details upon request.
Before the event insurance cover may already exist. You may have taken out legal expense insurance as part of an existing policy such as that covering your household contents or building cover. Similar policies exist with motor insurance and vehicle recovery organizations. If you do not have a copy of your legal expense insurance policy you should ask the insurer to forward one to you to enable you to understand precisely what cover is provided and what exclusions exist. An insurance company might seek to insist that you use their choice of Solicitors rather than your own but you may not have to accept this. Most insurers will provide cover only where a claim enjoys reasonable prospects of success.

Private Fee paying
Some clients will have funds at their disposal and will be able to pay for Solicitors costs and disbursements (e.g. fees for medical reports, court fees and the like) out of their own resources. We are happy to proceed on that basis in those rare circumstances where clients wish to do so and upon successful conclusion of a claim will recover most (if not all) of these costs and disbursements from the losing party’s insurers.

Contingency Fee Agreement
A Solicitor and client are entitled to enter into a Contingency Fee Agreement where court proceedings are not issued. Any claim involving the issue of court proceedings cannot be the subject of a Contingency Fee Agreement. A contingency fee exists where a Solicitor agrees to accept a percentage of damages recovered for pursuing the claim on your behalf. They are useful in situations where costs cannot be recovered and may be offered, for example, in claims against the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. In effect, they are a type of no win-no fee arrangement. Please ask for further details.

Trade Union Help
If you are a member of a Trade Union they may be able to assist you with the legal expense of your claim. Some Unions may only provide cover for personal injury claims which occur whilst their members are at work or travelling to and from their place of work.