legal expenses query

vix2000

Hi all, will try to keep this short. Just before xmas I was involved in an accident while at work (I drive for a living so was in the vehicle belonging to the company). The accident was 100% not my fault, police attended and there was cctv footage and the police recorded the incident.

I was OK at the time but the next day I felt so battered I could hardly move so I went to docs and got painkillers and anti inflammatories. Still didn't resolve so returned to GP and waiting for physio and to see specialist.

Was talking to a mate who said I should make a claim as I had to take time off work, so I contacted a no win no fee company. I was then informed of the new rules whereby they take 25% of any compensation received. She asked me if I had any legal cover, on another car, bank account, union, mortgage etc: as I can claim the 25% from them.

This sounds a bit bizarre to me, can anyone explain this to me please?

Spicy_McHaggis

Try another company.

InsideInsurance

vix2000 wrote: »

Was talking to a mate who said I should make a claim as I had to take time off work, so I contacted a no win no fee company. I was then informed of the new rules whereby they take 25% of any compensation received. She asked me if I had any legal cover, on another car, bank account, union, mortgage etc: as I can claim the 25% from them.

This sounds a bit bizarre to me, can anyone explain this to me please?

The law changed a little while back for "no win no fee" cases. Previously the solicitor acting in this way effectively got a bonus from the third party if they won the case and it was no win no fee. The normal fee that all solicitors can claim in Fast Track cases (£1,000-£25,000 compensation) is fairly limited and strictly controlled.

The change in law removed this bonus and instead allowed them to keep upto 25% of the winnings they earn for you instead. To partially compensate for this they increased all awards by 10%

If you have legal expenses insurance, also known as Motor Legal Protection or historically Uninsured Loss Recovery then the solicitors can act under the terms of this policy instead and thus dont take any of your winnings.

The law is upto 25% and the percent that different firms are keeping does vary. You can shop around and find one that is willing to work for a lower percentage if you dont have legal expenses cover elsewhere but some may argue that if they are getting much less money how much effort will they put into the case?

Aretnap

Basically, if you have legal expenses cover, through an insurance policy, a trade union or whatever, that means your insurer/union/whatever will pay your legal expenses for you if you need to make a claim for personal injury, subject to a few caveats like the claim having a reasonable chance of success.

Otherwise you'll need to find some other way of funding your legal expenses, either by paying your lawyer yourself up front (if you have plenty of spare money), or failing that through a no win no fee arrangement where your solicitor takes a percentage of your compensation in lieu of an up front fee.

25% is the maximum percentage solicitors can take under this type of agreement, but if you shop around you will be able to find solicitors who ask for a smaller percentage than that. But first check any insurance policies you have or whatever as legal expenses cover is often bundled in with car/home insurance and if you do have it you can use it to get representation with no deduction at all from your compensation.

OnanTheBarbarian

Check if the employer has legal expenses insurance, odds are they will if it is a commercial fleet.

That way, they will refer you to a solicitor on their panel to deal with the claim and there should not be any deductions taken.

Even if you discover you do have legal expenses cover yourself, the current no win no fee solicitors you are talking to will not be able to claim off your legal expenses policy. The reason for this is that legal expenses insurers have the right to refuse to agree to pay any of your legal fees if you use a solicitor who is not on their "panel".

The reason for this is that the panel solicitors are basically told that if they want to be on the panel, don't expect to get paid out by the policy if they lose a case etc etc. But due to the volume of work they can get from the legal expenses insurers, they take the risks of this because the good cases turn a small profit and the losses from the bad ones are absorbed.

The panel solicitors also pay a "marketing fee" to the legal expenses insurer or the insurer or broker you bought your insurance from if a customer uses the service.

If you want to use your own solicitor, the legal expenses insurer has no agreement with them for paying marketing fees, so the legal expenses insurer is missing out on the income they get usually from their pet firms. This is why they deliberately make it difficult for a customer to choose their own lawyer.

Under EC Directive, you can chose your own solicitor, but the legal expenses insurer can refuse to cover your fees up until the point that you issue court proceedings, then they can no longer refuse you your choice of your own lawyer and have to cover legal costs (so long as your solicitors comply will all sorts of requirements about reporting back to the legal expenses insurers and of course there being "reasonable prospects of success".

The reality is that when you use a legal expenses policy and their preferred solicitors, the legal expenses policy is never "paying your legal fees", they are just selling your claim (for a kick back of several hundred £) to a large law firm that deals with claims in bulk and essentially say to the lawyers, "here is a new client, thanks for the kick back, take the case on if you feel there are prospects, but don't come back to us for any money if you lose." If the case succeeds, the lawyers get paid costs by the insurance company of the party at fault for the accident.

Using your own lawyer is almost always likely to result in you having a deduction taken from the compensation as the legal expenses boys do not pay out any fees or expenses unless someone puts a gun to their heads.