We act under No Win No Fee agreements, Discounted Conditional Fee Agreements, on a Private Paying Basis or by recovering our fees from your legal expense insurers. We will advise you on the best funding method to maximise the recovery you receive for your matter.
Reforms to the justice system in 2013 meant that success fees and after the event insurance premiums are no longer recoverable from the losing party in litigation. This made funding litigation much more difficult for our clients, who now either have to share their winnings with lawyers and insurers, or take the risk of losing the claim and being responsible for the other party’s legal costs. This means that there are fewer cases that are suitable for “no win, no fee” agreements. More claims remain suitable for ‘no win, low fee’ agreements.
If you instruct us to continue to pursue your claim we will advise you of our estimate of costs. In certain cases such as debt recovery for example if your claim is for less than £10,000, it may be more cost effective for you to represent yourself, as it is likely that your claim would be allocated to the small claims track. Whilst there is nothing to prevent you from being represented by a solicitor in a small claim, the court rules, which Parliament has set, will usually prevent you from recovering your legal costs from your opponent if you win a claim which has been allocated to the small claims track.
We remain committed to being as flexible as possible in our approach and where possible offering alternative funding arrangements which help those otherwise unable to bring good claims.
Legal expenses insurance– Many of our clients find they have legal expenses insurance as part of their house or business buildings or contents insurance. If you do, we will notify your insurers for you and you do not have to pay. By law, insurers must let you have the solicitor you choose when you are involved in a court case.
No win, no fee – “No win, no fee” agreements, where the firm is only paid in the event that our client’s claim or defence succeeds, are still financially viable for certain claims, typically those over £50,000. Where possible we will still consider claims for “no win, no fee” agreements.
No win, low fee– In appropriate cases, we are able to offer discounted conditional fee agreements, or “no win, low fee” agreements, to clients. These are claims where clients only pay part of our hourly rates and the remainder is only payable based upon what we recover or save for our client. This links what we recover for our clients to what we are paid. In these sorts of agreement, our clients would pay us percentage of our fees at our hourly rates as the claim proceeds, with the remainder only payable in the event that the claim is successful.
Damages Based Agreements– In some cases we may be able to offer agreements to clients where they pay us part, or even none, of our fees as the case progresses, in return for the firm taking a share of their damages.
Fixed Fees– In some cases we can quote a fixed fee for a piece of work, rather than charging at an hourly rate based on time spent on the claim. This gives clients the benefit of certainty over what they will be charged for a piece of work and enables them to budget with confidence for the legal work carried out by this firm.
These fees are calculated by reference to our hourly rates which vary depending on the experience of the lawyer carrying out the work. They typically cost around £217 per hour plus VAT for work done by solicitors with over 8 years experience, £161 per hour plus VAT for work done by other solicitors, and £118 per hour plus VAT for work done by paralegals. VAT is chargeable at a rate of 20%. Alternatively we may agree to charge based upon what we recover or save for our client.
If you have a dispute and would like to discuss your case and funding options further, please give us a call or contact us via our online form. One of our lawyers will speak with you about your claim and what we can do to help without any costs commitment from you.