Personal Injury: How do I fund a claim

A claimant is a client of the firm and the starting point is therefore that he or she is primarily liable to pay the legal costs of the claim and also potentially the opponent’s legal costs should the claim not succeed (on the basis that the loser is normally required to pay the winner’s legal costs).    
     

However, provided we consider a claim to have reasonable prospects of success there are several methods of funding a claim so that no payment is required if the claim fails nor in the vast majority of cases if the claim succeeds. This is usually achieved in one of two ways:

• a Conditional Fee Agreement plus potentially an after the event legal expenses insurance policy (often called “no win no fee”). The CFA states that no legal fees are payable to us if the claim fails; and if the claim succeeds the costs are paid by the opponent as the loser. An after the event legal expenses insurance policy may be advisable to cover costs other than our own fees – such as the cost of obtaining medical reports, court fees and your opponent’s costs if the claim fails. A decision on whether a policy should be issued depends on all the circumstances and is taken on a case by case basis.

• legal expenses insurance – often part of a motor insurance policy or a household insurance policy. The legal expenses insurers will provide an indemnity in respect of any costs you have to pay (ie pay these on your behalf) either to us or to your opponent. Sometimes legal expenses insurers will only agree to cover a claim once court proceedings have been started in which case it can be started off on a CFA etc as above.