Funding Your Claim

Legal Expenses Insurance

You may be surprised to learn that you might already have insurance in place to cover the costs of your claim. Check business, household, building, car and credit card insurance policies to see whether they cover you for legal expenses and to what extent. Top-up insurance might also be available to ensure protection against costs.

Union Backing

If you have been injured in an accident at work, you may be able to obtain help towards funding from your trade union. If this applies to you, check with your union representative what assistance might be available.

Conditional Fee Arrangements

Many claims are funded by way of a conditional fee agreement where you pay a success fee, an uplift based on costs, if the compensation is paid.

Under the terms of such an agreement, we would expect to recover any costs from your opponent on the successful conclusion of your claim.

If you lose, you may be ordered to pay your opponent’s legal costs as well as your own costs. To protect yourself, you could take out an ‘after the event’ insurance policy.

Damages Based Agreement

Under a damages based agreement, if you win your case you must make up any costs shortfall, capped at 25 per cent, from the compensation that you receive.

If your claim is not successful, you will not have to pay any legal costs but you may still have to pay your disbursements and your opponent’s legal costs and their disbursements. Again you could take out ‘after the event’ insurance.

Retainers

This type of funding means that you agree to pay for the work done on your case, regardless of whether you win or lose. This may be a good option for you if you do not like the idea of paying a success fee. If you win, you are likely to recover most of your costs from your opponent. There may still be a shortfall and it is wise to have ‘after the event’ insurance to cover the risk of paying your opponent’s costs if you lose.

Third party litigation funding

It may be possible to get backing from a specialist company which finances litigation cases, but there can be a catch as they expect a substantial share, usually up to 50 per cent of the amount recovered.

Each case is different – some can be settled quickly whilst others are more complicated and take longer to resolve. If you have been injured in an accident, the personal injury team can advise you fully on your funding options. During our initial, free, no obligation telephone chat, we will take the time to understand what has happened and provide you with a range of options to help you decide how you wish to proceed.

Contact us now to find out how we can help you with your personal injury claim. You are in safe hands at Mander Hadley.