No Win No Fee Claims to Be Reviewed
No Win No Fee arrangements are to be put under the spotlight by a new Ministry of Justice, research based review.
The review itself will look to see if No Win No Fee is being used for it's intended, original purpose, that of giving more people access to justice.
No Win No Fee arrangements are typical in the personal injury field of law.
In the past, claiming compensation for an accident that wasn't the prospective claimants fault was simply too cost prohibitive for them to even begin the process.
Legal Aid was available through the government but the burden on them was becoming too much to bear and in 1998, No Win No Fee was introduced as the solution.
The premise of No Win No Fee is simple, a personal injury lawyer would look at the merits of a case and if they were confident of a successful verdict, they would take the case on at no expense to the claimant.
If the case is won, the personal injury lawyer claims the cost & fees of representing the claimant from the claimants opponent.
This means that the claimant retains 100% of all the compensation awarded.
There are many positives to this arrangement, the main one being that anybody who suffers from an accident where blame can apportioned to a third party, now has access to the justice system.
Prospective claimants are also guaranteed to have representation by a lawyer that has a deep rooted knowledge of personal injury law; lawyers taking on No Win No Fee cases have to be sure of a successful verdict or quite simply, they don't get paid for their efforts.
There are however, lawyers out there that insist on being paid their fees upfront, on the grounds that claimants can recover those costs back from their opponent.
In truth, this may not be the case, with courts only allowing 'reasonable costs' for lawyers time, meaning that in some instances claimants may not receive a true 100% compensation.
If a case is lost there will be no fees due to the claimants solicitor but it is likely that the claimant would be responsible for settling the opponents, and likely the courts expenses.
Claimants should always be sure in advance who is to responsible for these costs, personal injury lawyers can take out insurance policies to cover this eventuality, and it is advised that claimants should look for a lawyer that does indeed do this.
The Ministry of Justice now has a concern that No Win No Fee may be subject to misuse of it's intended purpose, hence the reason for a review of the system.
Only time will tell what the results will be and if change is needed, what direction the personal injury market will take.
The review itself will look to see if No Win No Fee is being used for it's intended, original purpose, that of giving more people access to justice.
No Win No Fee arrangements are typical in the personal injury field of law.
In the past, claiming compensation for an accident that wasn't the prospective claimants fault was simply too cost prohibitive for them to even begin the process.
Legal Aid was available through the government but the burden on them was becoming too much to bear and in 1998, No Win No Fee was introduced as the solution.
The premise of No Win No Fee is simple, a personal injury lawyer would look at the merits of a case and if they were confident of a successful verdict, they would take the case on at no expense to the claimant.
If the case is won, the personal injury lawyer claims the cost & fees of representing the claimant from the claimants opponent.
This means that the claimant retains 100% of all the compensation awarded.
There are many positives to this arrangement, the main one being that anybody who suffers from an accident where blame can apportioned to a third party, now has access to the justice system.
Prospective claimants are also guaranteed to have representation by a lawyer that has a deep rooted knowledge of personal injury law; lawyers taking on No Win No Fee cases have to be sure of a successful verdict or quite simply, they don't get paid for their efforts.
There are however, lawyers out there that insist on being paid their fees upfront, on the grounds that claimants can recover those costs back from their opponent.
In truth, this may not be the case, with courts only allowing 'reasonable costs' for lawyers time, meaning that in some instances claimants may not receive a true 100% compensation.
If a case is lost there will be no fees due to the claimants solicitor but it is likely that the claimant would be responsible for settling the opponents, and likely the courts expenses.
Claimants should always be sure in advance who is to responsible for these costs, personal injury lawyers can take out insurance policies to cover this eventuality, and it is advised that claimants should look for a lawyer that does indeed do this.
The Ministry of Justice now has a concern that No Win No Fee may be subject to misuse of it's intended purpose, hence the reason for a review of the system.
Only time will tell what the results will be and if change is needed, what direction the personal injury market will take.
Source...