Solicitor's fees in injury cases

Before arranging with a solicitor to pursue your injury claim you need to be happy with how your costs will be met.

As of April 2000 all Personal Injury Solicitors are obliged to work on your behalf on a no win no fee basis, this is subject to a small insurance premium which your solicitor may pay for on your behalf depending on your circumstances.

Don't be afraid of asking your solicitor the number of recent cases that they have won, in most cases they won't bite !

Conditional fees

Solicitors in the accidentcompensation.com network are prepared to act for some clients without charging a fee unless the case is successful, so, if you lose you do not have to pay anything for the work that has done. However, as the loser in the ease you may have to pay:

Your opponent's legal costs

The expenses incurred in bringing the case. (These are called disbursements and often include fees for medical and police reports.)

Your solicitor can arrange to protect you against this risk by taking out conditional fee insurance.

Because the solicitor will receive no fee if they lose, professional rules allow them to charge an additional fee if you win usually called the success fee In a successful case they would recover the basic fee from your opponents or their insurers; therefore you will only have to pay the success fee. However some if not all of this fee can be recovered by your solicitor

If they intend to charge a success fee, they should explain exactly how it will be calculated and paid. The Law Society recommends a charge for the success fee of no more than 25% of the compensation you are awarded and in most cases, far less than this.

The conditional fee agreement

This sets out in writing all the terms of the agreement between the solicitor, including details of any success fee. Do not be afraid to ask questions about this.

Conditional fee insurance

It covers your opponent's costs and the solicitors disbursements if the case is lost - up to £100,000.

There is no cover for cases outside the European Union and the insurance does not extend to your barrister's fees. If you need a barrister we will explain how this can be arranged.

They will supply a specimen of the insurance certificate wording if you would like to study it.

Before you go ahead

Make sure you have considered the different options for paying for a solicitors services and that you understand the difference between paying the fees in the traditional way and using a conditional fee agreement with insurance backing. Copies of the documents should be available for you to read in advance.

Some of the most important points are :-

• What are my chances of winning?
• How much am I likely to recover?
• Will my damages affect any D.S.S. payments I receive?
• Will I have to pay any expenses or costs and if so, when?
• What will I have to pay if I lose?
• Would I be well advised to use a conditional fee agreement or should I consider some other method of paying my solicitor?
• What would I have to pay if I did not use a conditional fee agreement?
• Is it likely that my opponent will have the ability to pay if my case is successful?