Email: advice@expresssolicitors.com | Tel: 0161 904 4660 | Freephone: 0800 158 5274
24/7 Freephone Number: 0800 158 5274
No Win No Fee has for several years been the basis upon which injured parties have been able to bring valid claims for injury or other loss in the Civil Courts without fear of having to pay expensive legal fees or surrender any of their compensation if successful.
Proposed reforms that the current Government are currently seeking to implement threaten to change drastically the funding structure for civil claims and effectively remove access to justice for tens of thousands of individuals.
At present we can assure you that if you bring a successful claim through us, we will not take any of your compensation. If the reforms are introduced you may be expected to pay up to 25% of your compensation to your solicitor.
To protect you against some of the costs associated with bringing a claim you can take out an insurance policy which can be paid for by the defendant’s insurer if succesful. The reforms would require you to pay the costly premium for this insurance from your own funds.
Rather than charging clients directly solicitors currently recover something called a success fee from the defendant if successful and simply waive fees if unsuccessful. Solicitors will no longer be able to recover success fees from defendants’ insurers.
As solicitors will not be able to recover their normal success fee from the defendant, you will instead have to pay them from your compensation. Not only does this mean that you will end up with less compensation than you deserve, it is also likely to reduce the amount received by solicitors for successful claims and may discourage them from taking on claims where they feel the level of compensation will be too low to justify working on your behalf.
In addition, the changes to the funding of the insurance premium mean that unless you can afford to take out the policy yourself, you are likely to have to pay for expenses incurred during the investigation of the claim such as medical assessments and expert evidence.
The biggest objection to the reforms is that it removes access to justice for a massive number of individuals who may well be entitled to compensation as they will struggle to find a solicitor to act on their behalf and may not have sufficient money to be able to fund a claim themselves.
It is widely felt throughout the legal services industry that the reforms were proposed on the basis of a misconception relating to an increase in the number of personal injury claims (which research has in contrast shown to be relatively constant) and resultant spiralling insurance premiums (insurers have always used the previous disproved statement regarding increases in claims to justify charging you more).
We feel that the only real winners from the reforms will be insurers who will not have to pay as much to settle claims but are unlikely to reduce premiums, and public bodies such as the NHS, MOD and local councils who are the defendants in significant numbers of claims each year.
If you feel, as we do, that justice should be available to everyone regardless of their financial status or potential compensation entitlement then you can join the campaign against the proposed changes. We are supporting Access To Justice Action Group (AJAG) who have gathered support from both within the legal profession and from MPs and other politicians who want to protect the interest of their constituents. To make your voice heard there are two tools on the AJAG website which allow you to both email your MP and sign an online petition. If you don’t know who your MP is, don’t worry by filling out the form AJAG will ensure it is correctly dealt with.
We are optimistic that the current level of support for the campaign will cause serious re-consideration of the proposed reforms but with your help we can be even stronger.
I was delighted to see the new President of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) wasting no time at all in taking the fight to the insurance industry. In his first speech as leader, Mr Tonks was vociferous in his criticism of insurance companies who drive up costs unnecessarily and then pass them on [...]
The Clinical Negligence team at Express Solicitors has watched with interest the situation regarding defective hip implants manufactured by DePuy. Around 49000 people in the UK have the ‘metalonmetal’ hip implants which have caused Personal Injury to many users. 49000 UK Patients At Risk From Defective Hip Devices The problem stems from device’s ball and joint [...]
