Clinincal Negligence
Funding
"It will be too expensive. I won't be able to afford to make a claim".
It is understandable that you might be anxious about the costs of a compensation claim. When you or a member of your family are coming to terms with illness, serious injury or long-term disability, the very last thing you need is worry about the cost of making a compensation claim.
Here are some points for you to think about before you decide whether to see one of our legal team.
If you make a successful compensation claim in England and Wales, generally your opponent will be ordered to pay the costs of your case and will have to pay their own costs. Of course you have to think about the possibility that the claim might not succeed. There are steps you can take to protect your position and we can advise you about those and help you to take them.
We offer a first free interview. We will give you our honest assessment so that you can decide whether you want to proceed. There is no charge for the first meeting.
You may be able to meet the cost of a compensation claim in several different ways. We will help you to decide which is the right one for you.
Community Legal Funding (Legal Aid)
As we specialise in clinical negligence litigation, we are one of a very few firms in the South West with a franchise from the Legal Services Commission allowing us to act for legally aided clients in this type of case.
Not everyone is entitled to legal aid. The Legal Services Commission looks at each case on its merits. Your eligibility also depends on your financial circumstances but we can explain this to you when we meet you. You can look at the Legal Services Commission website. It contains a useful calculator that can help you decide whether you are eligible for legal aid.
Legal Expenses Insurance
Increasing numbers of people already have insurance covering the cost of clinical negligence and other types of claim. We will help you to look at your existing insurance policies. The best places to look are on any existing -
- Home contents policy
- Motor insurance policies
- Building insurance policies
- Life/critical illness policies
Occasionally credit cards provide legal expense insurance cover.
Trade Union funding
You may also be entitled to help with the cost of your case if you are a member of a Trade Union. We can help you to make the necessary enquiries. Some Unions even have schemes to pay for cases brought by your children or a spouse.
Conditional Fee Agreements (no win no fee)
A "Conditional Fee Agreement" is the correct technical name for what many people call a "no win, no fee" agreement. Depending upon the facts of the case, we may be able to act for you under this sort of agreement. It may be necessary for us to carry out some initial enquiry before we can reach a decision about this. It will probably be necessary for us to arrange on your behalf a policy of insurance to work with the no win, no fee agreement.
Private payment
It may be that the private payment of costs is the only option; at least in the early stages of the case. As the case progresses it may be possible to reconsider the funding options described above.
If you decide to pay our costs privately, we can estimate them in advance. We shall do our best to estimate what our opponent's costs might be although this will involve an element of informed guesswork.