The basic position
In litigation the usual rule is that the losing party pays the winning party’s reasonable costs and expenses of pursuing the claim. Accordingly a successful party is generally entitled to recover the majority of their costs from the opponent either by negotiation or by obtaining an appropriate court order. Were you to lose your case, then you would probably be responsible for paying your opponent’s costs. We will take out the necessary insurance on your behalf to cover this risk.
Pursuing a claim at law can be an expensive process. Accordingly we will provide you with detailed information about our costs and the way in which they are calculated.
Obviously, our first concern will be to establish whether there are sufficient grounds to justify bringing a claim on your behalf. The next step is to consider what is the most suitable method of funding the claim.
Lansbury Worthington currently offers the following alternative ways of funding your claim:
Conditional fee agreements
This the most common way of funding a personal injury claim. Under a conditional fee agreement, Lansbury Worthington will not charge you for its services if you do not win your case. This is sometimes referred to as the “no win–no fee” scheme.
If you win your case, then we will be paid directly by your opponent. You will not usually be asked to pay anything at any stage.
The success fee is subject to a maximum percentage rate of 100% of the basic costs. If you win your case, you will be entitled to claim from your opponent the following:
- your damages
- your solicitor’s costs plus any success fee assessed on the standard basis plus VAT and disbursements,
- These costs and expenses will usually be recoverable from your opponent.
If you lose the case then you will only be responsible to pay the following:
- any expenses (called disbursements) that Lansbury Worthington has incurred on your behalf, but not its fees
- your opponent’s legal costs, unless you are insured against this possibility
Under an agreement between the Law Society and Accident Line Protect it is possible for you to take out a litigation insurance policy against the risk of your having to pay your opponent’s legal costs (and any expenses incurred on your behalf) in the event that your claim is unsuccessful. The insurance provides you with up to £100,000 cover against your opponent’s legal costs.
“disbursements”
These are expenses incurred on your behalf by Lansbury Worthington in order to progress your claim, such as court fees and consultancy fees. They are usually recoverable from your opponent in the event of a successful outcome to your claim.
In a typical personal injury claim you might expect to incur the following disbursements:
- Police Accident Report fee £80.00
- Administration fees in obtaining access to your medical records of up to £100.00
- Medical Report fee of about £500.00
- Possibly a court fee if it becomes necessary to issue proceedings:
- this depends on the value of your claim. £120.00 - £500.00
- Possibly also counsel’s fees, inclusive of VAT £500.00
We will endeavour to identify the likely level of expenditure at our first meeting.
We would expect to recover all the disbursements that we will incur on your behalf from the opponent in the event of a successful outcome of the claim. Should your claim fail, the Accident Line Insurance Policy will reimburse you these expenses.
We would normally pay these expenses and disbursements ourselves as the case proceeds, and then recover these for you if your claim is successful. If your claim is not successful then the Accident Line insurance policy will usually pay the cost of these expenses.
The traditional private client retainer
Under this type of agreement you agree to pay Lansbury Worthington for its professional services for the time spent on your case at an agreed hourly rate.
Traditionally the hourly rate has two components: the hourly expense rate (which represents this firm’s overheads), and the uplift, (which represents the profit element of our fees), which is based upon a percentage of the hourly expense rate.
Lansbury Worthington’s current hourly charging rates are calculated to include both the expense rate and the uplift, in order to simplify the process. The charging rate varies depending upon the seniority and experience of the lawyer handling your claim.
In this type of funding the client is responsible for paying our costs even if the case is lost, although it may still be possible to obtain insurance to pay the other side’s costs in that event.
Civil legal aid
Civil legal aid is generally no longer available to fund personal injury claims. There are some very limited exceptions and we will discuss these with you if we believe that you might qualify. We have a personal injury franchise granted by the Legal Services Commission (LSC).
The financial criteria for eligibility for legal aid and the legal advice and assistance scheme are very limited.
Legal expenses insurance cover
This is becoming an increasingly popular means of providing for legal costs. Many clients are unaware that they have the benefit of legal expenses insurance. It is important that you should check whether you already have legal expenses insurance cover; either provided by a dedicated policy or legal expenses cover incorporated in one or more other insurance policies, for example: household or home and contents insurance, motor insurance, even some credit cards provide some legal expenses
Lansbury Worthington acts for a number of clients who are funded by legal expenses insurance. If you have legal expenses insurance you have a right to the solicitor of your choice once proceedings have commenced and many Insurance Companies are now prepared to allow you to choose your solicitor in any event.
Trade union funding
Some clients have the benefit of free advice and representation funded by their Trade Union. Trade Unions, like many legal expenses insurers tend limit the number of solicitors authorised to act on their members’ behalf to a limited panel of approved solicitors.
