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Persoanl Injury?

With the recent cold snap resulting in many accidents and injuries we thought it might be interesting to talk about how you'd go about finding a Personal Injury Solicitor.

Before making a personal injury claim, or any kind of litigation, you must first decide whether the claim is worth pursuing. This will involve a cost analysis of how much money it will cost  vs  what the reward will be in making the claim.

As public finding is no longer available on personal injury claims, you must therefore, in theory, use your own funds to commence proceedings.

There are lots of considerations to make and weighing out the advantages and disadvantages can help you make the right decision.

However Conditional Fee Agreements also known as ‘No Win, No Fee’ agreements were introduced to allow access to justice.

This means that if you lose the case then your solicitor is not allowed to charge you for the work they have done.

However if you win the case then the solicitor will charge you a percentage of what was agreed at the beginning and that will then be deducted from the opponents side.

The success fee can not be more than 100% of the basic fee a solicitor would normally charge. In justifying the amount of success fee the client will pay reflects on certain elements such as the risk involved in pursuing the claim and the fact that they will not earn anything if you do not win the case , also the type of arrangement you have made in paying disbursements.

Disbursements are payments that the solicitor will pay on your behalf in order to make the application. Paying for disbursements includes payments such as court fees, expert fees and travelling expenses etc.

After the Event insurance can be taken out from an independent insurance specialist who will pay your legal costs if you lose.

Before the event insurance can also be taken out but at a different time in the legal process.

Once the courts have decided on who is to win, a costs judge will usually assess the costs incurred in bringing the claim to court. They will look at whether the costs incurred are ‘reasonable’. A costs judge has the power to cap or limit the amount recoverable by the winning party.

If you’d like to know more, there’s a great solicitor in Sutton Coldfield that’d be delighted to help you out – click on the link above or call 0121 240 9115.