Is there a limit for solicitor fees in a pi claim from an rta

InsideInsurance

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

The 10% uplift on general damages only applies to claimants who entered into a CFA after 1/4/13 (as success fees no longer became recoverable from the Defendant from that point in time)

:T

Go me, go me :j:D

OnanTheBarbarian

You ought to work in the insurance industry

vaio

InsideInsurance wrote: »

:T

Go me, go me :j:D

Not so fast, haveing different damages rates depending on method of case funding doesn't make sense to me.

A bit of digging comes up with

....
Increase in general damages

The 10% increase in non-pecuniary general damages such as for pain, suffering and loss of amenity will apply to all tort cases, however funded. The details are set out in the Court of Appeal judgment in the case of Simmons v. Castle [2012] EWCA Civ 1288. The increase applies to cases which settle or where judgment is given after 1 April 2013, unless there is a funding agreement, such as a CFA, which pre-dates 1 April 2013.....

https://www.justice.gov.uk/civil-justice-reforms/main-changes

OnanTheBarbarian

Amendment to the original judgment
The Court of Appeal has in effect deleted para 19 from its earlier judgment, and replaced para 20 with the following paragraph:
“20. Accordingly, we take this opportunity to declare that, with effect from 1 April 2013, the proper level of general damages in all civil claims for (i) pain and suffering, (ii) loss of amenity, (iii) physical inconvenience and discomfort, (iv) social discredit, (v) mental distress, or (vi) loss of society of relatives, will be 10% higher than previously, unless the claimant falls within section 44(6) of LASPO. It therefore follows that, if the action now under appeal had been the subject of a judgment after 1 April 2013, then (unless the claimant had entered into a CFA before that date) the proper award of general damages would be 10% higher than that agreed in this case, namely £22,000 rather than £20,000”.
What effect does the judgment have?
CFA and CCFA claimants - will not receive the 10% increase in general damages, unless they have entered into a CFA or had their case taken onto a CCFA after s. 44(6) LASPO 2012 comes into force on 1 April 2013.

InsideInsurance

↖ gets the popcorn in

vaio

Forget the popcorn, the para 20 bit is from the case I was reading (Simmons v Castle) and is clear, the uplift applies to *all* claims after the 1/4/13 unless the claimant had entered into a CFA (with recoverable success fee) prior to 1/4/13.

Which makes sense when you think about it, losing defendants either have to pay the pre 1/4/13 recoverable "success fee" or the post 1/4/13 enhanced damages, not both

It's a tribute to the lobbying skills of the insurers & lawyers that, whilst the appeal court judges in this case and Sir Rupert Jackson in his Final Report on Civil Litigation Costs published in December 2009 all felt that general damages were historically too low the way the up lift thing has been brought in means that the actual injured person gets less than before because although the "value" of injuries has been increased by 10% the lawyers get to keep up to 25% of the payout.

Old system.....
Injury worth £5k.....injured person got £5k, solicitors got "success fee", insurers paid it all

New system...
Injury now "worth" £5,500.......Solicitors get no "success" fee but do get up to £1350 out of the £5.5k compensation, injured person only gets gets £4125

Injured people lose out, insurers win and lawyers are somewhere between the two

All a bit crap really

JPS29

Brilliant example vaio exactly what I was looking for really. As the solicitors are asking me if I have legal cover how does that work using your example of an award of 5500 say..
Full amount to me and they claim 1350 thru legal expenses. Will this not have a bearing on my future premiums as it's attached to my policy?

vaio

I'm pretty sure Onan and Jamie are lawyers practising in this area so hopefully one or other will chime in soon.

My best guess is that as you have legal cover then you shouldn't have to give up any of your compensation but will get the benefit of the 10% uplift.

As to whether your claim will affect future premiums I wouldn't be surprised if it does but the main damage will likely be the fact that you've had an accident rather than anything else.

JPS29

Thanks for the reply again.

da_rule

After all of the reforms there are now 2 types of 'no win no fee' arrangements.

The old CFA is still in existence. The success fee that can be recovered is capped at 100% of the solicitors costs. The costs themselves can be recovered from the other side, but the success fee cannot and therefore comes out of your award of damages. The success fee percentage will decrease based on the risk of the case (i.e. the easier to win the less the success fee).

If you choose to enter a DBA then the success fee is capped at 25% of the damages awarded (excluding any award to cover future loss). The DBA is still relatively new. Again the success fee will be based on the risk of the litigation. There is also a possibility that the solicitor will still submit their costs to the court and the other side will pay it, but not the difference between the costs and the agreed success fee. So, for example, a solicitor does £1,000 of work on your case and agrees a success fee of 20%. If you are awarded £10,000 damages then the success fee is £2,000. The £1,000 of costs should be recoverable from the other side but the remaining £1,000 will have to be made up out of the award of damages.

If you decide to employ your own solicitor then you should also get an after the event insurance policy. This covers you should you not win your case and will pay the other sides costs. If you go through your insurance company then you will probably not have to pay for this policy.