No win no fee advice

Sirrel Squirrel · 29 Jul 2015 at 00:20

Someone I know is currently at the out of court settlement stage of their personal injury claim and they've been offered £1500 compensation plus legal costs paid, which are around £10k.These legal costs sound very excessive to me and sounds like the solicitor is taking a large chunk of the settlement.

I've had a search online and can't find anything that clear although I was under the impression legal costs couldn't be more than 25% of the settlement unless that is if it went to court?

Please don't start a debate about whether claiming for compensation is a good or bad thing

The claim in this case is perfectly legitimate.

Rich_L · 29 Jul 2015 at 01:35

Need more detail, what type of claim, when was the accident, when did the claim start etc. There have been a lot of changes in the last few years to the treatment of legal costs so all the above can affect the answer

dowie · 29 Jul 2015 at 01:44

Sirrel Squirrel said:
Please don't start a debate about whether claiming for compensation is a good or bad thing The claim in this case is perfectly legitimate.

surely the legal fees don't matter - is the compensation sufficient or not for whatever he/she is being compensated for? Were they looking for £1500 or a larger amount? and what are the chances of getting that larger amount if they carry on with the case? I mean that is all that matters to them surely?

Sirrel Squirrel · 29 Jul 2015 at 06:41

Rich_L said:
Need more detail, what type of claim, when was the accident, when did the claim start etc. There have been a lot of changes in the last few years to the treatment of legal costs so all the above can affect the answer

Accident happened Jan 2013 and the claim started about 3 months later. The accident resulted in torn ligaments from falling on an unlit and uneven path.

The amount sounds low because they were initially told the compensation would be from £3k to £20k but the solicitor is advising that the settlement should be accepted.

Raymond Lin · 29 Jul 2015 at 06:46

Why should it or not be accepted? Was it because he took no time off work? No one cared for him. No proof of time off work and now he shows no signs of being injured?

Sirrel Squirrel · 29 Jul 2015 at 06:56

Raymond Lin said:
Why should it or not be accepted? Was it because he took no time off work? No one cared for him. No proof of time off work and now he shows no signs of being injured?

Yes that's pretty much the case, I said he should probably just accept the offer due to this. It just sounded like the fees were very high, is it the case that the compensation and legal fees should be treated completely separately?

Raymond Lin · 29 Jul 2015 at 07:09

Compensation is proportional to injury and loss. If he's now fully fit, wasn't injured enough to lose work or was unemployed anyway and never lost any earnings, and no care needs. The amount can be claimed will be limited. The legal fees is the hours the claimant solicitors worked. The £15k would just be the starting amount, no doubt it'll be disputed, they need to account for it all and it goes to a costs draftsman and then they'll haggle that down.

Sirrel Squirrel · 29 Jul 2015 at 07:13

Thanks for the advice Raymond, I'll pass it on.

RetiredGreyFox · 29 Jul 2015 at 07:46

This is my day job and I always tell friends never to go to No Win No Fee.
It is not unusual to see a Claimant get £1000 while the Solicitor walks away with £10,000 with the worst case I've seen being £1000 for the Claimant and £83,000 for the Solicitor.
Over this last few months we now have a No Win No Fee firm dealing with us a lot and they send letters for nothing and every letter, email & phone call is more for them

Danthus · 29 Jul 2015 at 07:50

Dimple said:
This is my day job and I always tell friends never to go to No Win No Fee.
It is not unusual to see a Claimant get £1000 while the Solicitor walks away with £10,000 with the worst case I've seen being £1000 for the Claimant and £83,000 for the Solicitor.
Over this last few months we now have a No Win No Fee firm dealing with us a lot and they send letters for nothing and every letter, email & phone call is more for them

Do you not use a Cost Negotiator?

noj · 29 Jul 2015 at 08:19

damages and costs are separate. The damages you get are based on the injury, how old the claim is, what other cases there are similar and what type of damages they got at the time.

The value of the claim may well have changed because of the argument the defendants put up or the evidence your friend put in doesn't support the original value or perhaps there is even a risk that your friend may end up with nothing if it went to a full trial - your mate should talk to the solicitor and find out what's changed

The costs are a separate part of the negotiation and often come after damages have been agreed (though not always). The costs piece is not going to affect how much your claim is worth and costs discussions can go on for years after the damages have been paid - I've got a file on my desk right now that has costs outstanding for 4 years that we're still waiting on to get paid and that's after it went to a Costs Draftsman.

Housey · 29 Jul 2015 at 08:25

It's a bent system.

stopper · 29 Jul 2015 at 09:17

You don't need a solicitor for an out of court settlement, they are only a middle man who just write the letters.
Approach whoever you are claiming off personally, and offer to remove the middle man if you double up your own amount.

Raymond Lin · 29 Jul 2015 at 09:37

stopper said:
You don't need a solicitor for an out of court settlement, they are only a middle man who just write the letters.
Approach whoever you are claiming off personally, and offer to remove the middle man if you double up your own amount.

There is a saying that goes something like "Only a fool has himself as a client."

The defendant (backed by insurance company) will bury you in so much legal jargon that you will be lost and they could deny liability all the way. You could be missing critical deadlines that you don't know you've missed and would either be statute barred from issuing or struck out for not complying with court directions.

I mean do you even know what is a Part 36 offer and what are the rules that govern Part 36?

dowie · 29 Jul 2015 at 13:05

Raymond Lin said:
Compensation is proportional to injury and loss. If he's now fully fit, wasn't injured enough to lose work or was unemployed anyway and never lost any earnings, and no care needs. The amount can be claimed will be limited.

which begs the question as to why the solicitor has mislead him into thinking the range is at least double the amount currently offered through to twenty times the amount currently offered

and despite having told him that now thinks that he should accept an amount half as much as the low end of his range

do no win no fee solicitors routinely just BS about compensation amounts to win clients or is it more that the solicitor has seen an opportunity to settle and get paid?

It just seems a bit like Estate agents who sound very confident that the house is worth say at least 500k but then when an offer comes in for 475 they strongly advise the client to take it(as it is better for the agent to simply ensure they get paid) .... Except 1.5k down from 3k to 30k is an even bigger drop....

arknor · 29 Jul 2015 at 13:37

this disgusts me.

my mum fell on an uneven inner kerb near some bushes, the council fixed it days after she reported it so it was obviously a big enough problem.

she had broken bones and got nothing apart from discovering she has weak bones and a few months of not being able to work.

she will never have full movement of her rotary cuff again..
someone gets 1.5k for a few torn ligaments...

10k in legal fees is a joke these companies shouldn't be allowed to claim for more than the "victim" gets in compensation.

it'll be us paying for it with our council tax

Zenduri · 29 Jul 2015 at 15:06

arknor said:
this disgusts me.

my mum fell on an uneven inner kerb near some bushes, the council fixed it days after she reported it so it was obviously a big enough problem.

she had broken bones and got nothing apart from discovering she has weak bones and a few months of not being able to work.

she will never have full movement of her rotary cuff again..
someone gets 1.5k for a few torn ligaments...

10k in legal fees is a joke these companies shouldn't be allowed to claim for more than the "victim" gets in compensation.

it'll be us paying for it with our council tax

Bloke at work went flying off a carpark ledge down the side or a building, messed him up and he got £36,000... solicitor took £33,000 in fees.... Utter scumbags

stopper · 29 Jul 2015 at 15:10

Raymond Lin said:
I mean do you even know what is a Part 36 offer and what are the rules that govern Part 36?

No, but I do know you missed the point.

Qitarah · 29 Jul 2015 at 15:17

As someone else has mentioned costing and damages are two entriely different things. It's not one big pool of money that gets split at the solicitors discretion.

NickK · 29 Jul 2015 at 16:01

I think like financial short term loans, the no-win-no-fee will end up being investigated at some point.

Currently it's a nice little earner for the legal system, perpetuated by.. you guessed it - the legal system (action, setting of costs and awarding is done with the legal system). Unless it becomes a severe impact to commerce and business in the UK it will continue.

The problem is you cannot link the awarded damages and the cost - because it would lead to the running up of cost being used to protect against legal claims by defending (and perhaps guilty) parties.

Question is - what is an acceptable rate at which cost is incurred (i.e. calling continuously or emailing = cost but not value).