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Funding - How much will it cost to make a claim 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. Please note that if your case is successful, then you will have to reimburse the LSC for all the costs that have been incurred under the certificate. This is known as the statutory charge (hyperlink). Normally if successful, you will be able to recover the majority of your legal costs from your opponent. 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 clinical 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 clinical 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. 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. Payment of disbursements such as expert's fees Initially, you will be liable to pay for your own disbursements. These will probably include the cost of obtaining medical notes and records and a medical report. You may be able to enter into a loan agreement to pay for the disbursements. If you do, you will have to pay interest on the loan, even if you win your claim. Initial investigations We normally ask our client's to pay the initial investigation costs which include obtaining your medical notes and records and a medical report before we will consider entering into a CFA. This is because entering into a CFA puts a big obligation on the firm as there is a risk of not being paid if your claim is unsuccessful. If after the initial investigations, we obtain a report which is supportive of your claim, we will then consider entering into a CFA with you to fund the further legal costs. If you have a CFA and win your claim, then we will receive our usual fees plus what is known as a success fee. The success fee is calculated as a percentage of the overall costs and the majority of it should be payable by your opponent. The actual success fee is calculated according to the particular facts of your case and the risks involved.The only part of the success fee that you will not be able to recover, will be the funding element of the success fee which amounts to approximately 5% of the total success fee. This reflects the fact that we will not be paid our basic charges until the conclusion of your claim, the balance of the success fee ie 95% will be claimable from your opponent at the end of your claim if you are successful. 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. If you would like further information, please contact Guy Eskell or Justin Goodman or complete our online enquiry form and a member of our clinical negligence team will contact you.
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