Funding - How Much Will
it Cost To Make A Claim?
of your claim, the type and amount of medical and other evidence required, whether the claim is disputed and whether the claim goes to Court. The legal costs can be very considerable. We will consider and advise you about what funding options may be available to you.
The funding options include:-
1. Public Funding (formerly known at Legal Aid)
Pardoes hold the Specialist Quality Mark from the Legal Services Commission (LSC). The Legal Services Commission was formerly known as the Legal Aid Board. Pardoes can do publicly funded clinical negligence work. To be eligible for public funding, you must satisfy two tests:-
a) Merit Test
The Legal Services Commission must be satisfied that your claim warrants funding. We will make an assessment about the prospects of your claim being successful and its likely value after we have taken full instructions from you.
b) Financial Eligibility Test
Public funding is generally only available to people on a low income and who have very little savings or capital. To assess your financial eligibility, we will need to know about your income, savings and capital.
The LSC may make it a condition of your funding certificate that you make a monthly financial contribution towards the costs of your claim.
If you satisfy both tests, then you will receive a certificate of public funding. This will almost always be limited in the first instance, to cover the initial investigatory work and costs of your claim.
2. Legal Expenses Insurance
You may have the benefit of legal expenses insurance under your household, car, credit card or other insurance policies. We will be happy to look at your policy documentation and advise you whether this is a possibility. If you have insurance, then this may provide you with cover to pay for your own and your opponent's legal costs and expenses. We will check the terms of the policy to ensure that you have adequate cover.
3. Trade Union or Association Support
If you are a member of a Trade Union or professional association, you may have the benefit of financial support to help you bring a medical negligence claim. The terms of your membership should be checked carefully to see exactly what support you have. We will be happy to do this for you.
4. Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) "No Win No Fee" Agreement
This type of agreement is available for some medical negligence cases.
If we enter into a CFA with you, then we will only be paid if you win your claim.
It is important to note that whilst lawyers can work on a no win no fee basis, other service providers, such as medical experts are not allowed to do so. This means that expenses which arise in investigating your claim, such as the cost of obtaining medical notes and records and medical reports are not covered by the agreement nor are your opponent's legal costs and expenses.
We advise our client's to take out an after the event insurance policy to ensure that in the event that the claim is wholly or partly unsuccessful the opponent's costs and disbursements and your own disbursements, such as expert and Court fees (but not our fees) are covered. It is very important to ensure that the amount of insurance cover is sufficient to cover all of the potential costs. If you win you claim, then the cost of the insurance policy premium will be reclaimed along with your other legal costs and expenses including any success fee under the Conditional Fee Agreement.
It is sometimes possible to obtain insurance with a deferred premium.
The advantage of this is that you will not have to pay the insurance premium until the end of your case. The premium may also be paid out of the proceeds of the insurance policy if you lose your claim.
5. Paying Yourself
You can pay the costs of investigating your claim yourself. Once the initial investigations are completed and the merits of your claim assessed, it may be possible to enter into a No Win No Fee Agreement (CFA) with the benefit of insurance to cover your opponent's costs and your disbursement costs if you lose your claim.
The above is a summary of the different funding options available. We will fully explain the financial implications of the funding options available to you when we meet.
For further information please contact one of the team members Justin Goodman, Frances Letchford, Daniel Isaac, Guy Eskell, Natalie Jones, Joanne Burton or James Wickett or complete our online enquiry form and one of our specialist Solicitors will contact you.
