No win no fee case fees

trets77

Hello all

please forgive my naivity but i have no knowledge of the legal system what so ever.



Long story short i was bitten an injured by a dog in a public place a few weeks ago. reported to police at the time

My union has a solictors firm who i decided to contact about a injury claim. I filled out a questionaire and was asked a few questions over the phone by a solicitor who advised they would be writing to the police for the dog owner details.

Police call me today and say they are not taking any further action. I assume now that i probably do not have a good case for claim. My injuries were not serious and probably just be left with a scar.

My naviety is that i did not know i would have to pay any costs of the other party should i lose (i know i am stupid). no court proceedings or a claim has yet been issued.

If i ask the solicitor to drop the case now will be liable to pay any fees? i cannot afford a large bill and have so far not been advised about any after the event insurance, i have just filled in a form detailing the event and had one letter and one phone call from the firm.

I know i should have known all of this before hand, but i thought i was just in the stage of seeing if a claim was viable. it never occurred to me i might have incurred charges up to this point. i have not authorised any action yet, just provided details of the incident and agreed for the solicitor to contact the police for dog owner details

Solictitor is (hopefully) calling me tomorrow.

Any responses greatly welcomed as i have a young family with high child care costs and money is very tight

pinkshoes

You say you contacted the union's solicitor firm. Is this specifically a no win no fee firm?

There are specific no win no fee firms.

You will probably have to pay for any work done so far, like any letters and phone calls made.

trets77

it is law firm that has strong links to my union. it has no win no fee service

I have received one letter, asking me to call them. I have had received one phone call asking me for more details and asking for the the crime ref number for the incident.

I have only signed a statement of my version of the events. I thought we were just seeing if a claim was possible at this point i was unaware of any obligation to proceed with a claim if i did not want to.
Rather like giving the car insurance details for quote if you will

Ectophile

trets77 wrote: »

Police call me today and say they are not taking any further action. I assume now that i probably do not have a good case for claim.

That's a very big assumption.

The police will drop the case if they don't think that a criminal act has taken place, or if they don't think they have sufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution.

That says little about whether or not you have a civil claim for damages. You can claim for damage caused by someone's negligence even if no criminal offence has occurred.

trets77

Ectophile wrote: »

That's a very big assumption.

The police will drop the case if they don't think that a criminal act has taken place, or if they don't think they have sufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution.

That says little about whether or not you have a civil claim for damages. You can claim for damage caused by someone's negligence even if no criminal offence has occurred.

i guess so. My problem is the police seemed very concerned when the incident occurred and children may have been at risk had they been the one in the wrong place. yet now they seem to be believing the owners over me and other person present. The officer told me the owners gave statements with their solictor present. i of course did not.

The thing is i did not see if a claim was viable for the money, i wanted to do as much as possible so the next person attacked was not a child. If that meant costing owners so much money they could afford pet insurance then that was a step in the right direction

dacouch

The police work on the basis of being able to prove the crime "beyond all reasonable doubt" and also have other issues as to why they may not pursue the matter.

A civil court work on the basis of "balance of probabilities"

hollydays

What have the police said to make you believe they don't believe you, but believe the owners?

Crazy_Jamie

Have you actually signed a Conditional Fee Agreement at this stage?

Every CFA has different terms attached to it, but generally speaking you may be in difficulty in terms of paying costs if you seek to withdraw a claim that is seen as having reasonable prospects of success. However, at such an early stage I would be a little surprised if the solicitors sought to charge you for work already done, though of course it is possible. The best way to get a definitive answer would be to ask them.

If you are considering withdrawing because you suspect the case no longer as reasonable prospects of success, I would wait to see what the solicitors say about your prospects. If they do not think you have reasonable prospects, or get that advice from a barrister, they will not take the case on a CFA in any event, so you the case will end without you having any liability to pay legal fees.

If the case is deemed to have reasonable prospects of success and you proceed with it, you will be protected from the possibility of having to pay the other side's legal costs with an ATE policy which the solicitors will arrange for you. Such policies are not strictly necessary anymore, as since April 2013 Defendants in personal injury cases are generally not allowed to recover their costs (a system called Qualified One Way Costs Shifting), but for various reasons that I'm not going to go into firms do still tend to arrange them. So you should not be at risk generally speaking of paying the other side's costs.

The bottom line is this; if you want to get out of the claim at this stage irrespective of whether or not you have prospects, ask the solicitors about whether or not you would have to pay anything to do that. Otherwise, wait for the solicitors to provide you with their view on your prospects. If they don't think you have reasonable prospects the case will cease anyway. If they think you do you should be protected from any potential costs liability by way of an ATE policy. Again, for absolute specifics talk to the solicitor, but it should work in more or less the way that I've described above.