County Court damages - order of payment?

Lancs1961

Hi all,

I'll be very grateful if a lawyer or somebody else here knows the answer to this. I've searched the internet but haven't been able to find anything.

About four years ago a county court made an order for damages in my favour (in the region of £9k) against a nightmare neighbour. It's a long story, but it was the neighbour who brought the claim, against me. I was counterclaiming. His claim was completely dismissed (he was found to have told a pack of lies) and my counterclaim was successful. I was also granted injunctions against him pursuant to the harassment legislation. I had legal expenses insurance, and my insurers appointed a firm of solicitors who dealt with the matter to court and during the hearing. As well as damages I was also awarded costs, which far outweighed the amount of the damages (in the region of some £80k).

Afterwards the neighbour put his house on the market and left, and it has recently sold for £150k. My solicitors had been granted conduct of the sale some time ago, and so the proceeds of sale went to them to distribute.

About a month ago my solicitors paid the sum awarded to me in damages into my account, which was fantastic since I wasn't sure I would ever receive it. They didn't include or refer to interest, though. I wrote to them to thank them for the payment but asked about interest. I believe interest was due at approximately 8%, and so after all this time it amounts to something approaching £4k, which is a lot of money to me.

Today the solicitors have told me that the insurers have not received the totality of their costs, and that the solicitors have not received all of their fee from the insurers. They say they've written to the insurers to ask whether they are willing to fund a further application against the neighbour. They say they will consider my outstanding interest if they get permission from the insurers to pursue this additional claim.

My question is this. Does anybody know the order in which parties/insurers/solicitors are paid from moneys received in this situation? The neighbour was divorced since I've been waiting for my damages, and so I know that his Ex will have received some funds (that's fine - I understand why). I have no idea how much she received, though, or where the balance of the approximately £140k left after my £9k has gone.

This has been hanging over me for 8 years now, since I moved here and the idiot neighbour began his campaign of harassment. I would love to be able to put it behind me, but I don't feel able to simply write off almost £4k. That's an awful lot of money to me.

Can anybody tell me whether I should stand in the 'queue' in front of my insurer and solicitor? The fact that they sent me the damages suggests to me that they believe so, but if that's the case then I don't see why they are treating my interest as a separate claim.

Again, if anybody can answer this, or even point me towards relevant legislation/rules, I would be very grateful! If I'm not entitled to the money then so be it, but I don't feel I'm really able to argue a case with the solicitor because I've not been able to find out what my rights are.

Thanks, and fingers crossed.

stragglebod

Your solicitor has a lien over anything they recover for you, so they can take their costs out before passing the balance to you. Your contract with the insurers probably has similar terms.

Here's a good summary of how liens work.
http://www.lawyersdefencegroup.org.uk/who-owns-what-file-ownership-and-liens/

bris

Basically you get what's left after all the professional fees have been paid.


It wouldn't work any other way, what firm would do all that legal work if they weren't sure they would get paid?

Lancs1961

Very many thanks, both of you.

Does that apply only to the interest or also to the damages? If damages too then it sounds as though perhaps I’m lucky already to have received them

Again, thank you - very much appreciated.

Edited to add: this is the other thing still confusing me. If you can help then again I’ll be very grateful. I assumed (though possibly wrongly) that according to the terms of my insurance the insurance company would pay the solicitors, so they wouldn’t end up out of pocket. As to the insurance company, I assumed that if they didn’t get everything back then that was part of the risk that both sides enter when creating an insurance contract I.e. I’ve always had insurance for X, Y and Z but until now I’ve never had to use it. They’ve therefore had my premiums all these years - dead money to me - but on this occasion I needed it, and possibly it’s part of the risk they assumed to end up out of pocket. Is that not correct?

Thank you again!

steampowered

The solicitor will definitely get get paid first.

Where you sit with respect to the insurer will depend on the terms of your insurance policy.

I am not clear what "costs" the insurer would be getting paid here? Do you mean recovery of the insurer's legal expenses (i.e. the same thing as the solicitor's fees)?

Do you have the neighbour's new address? If not I would suggest that further enforcement action is likely to be difficult.

Lancs1961

Hi there, and thank you for helping.

You’re right - I hadn’t thought it through. Costs can only really mean the legal fees, and so I’m not sure what the solicitor can have meant when he said he had not yet received the majority of his fee and nor had the insurers yet been paid in full. I’ve written to him to ask for clarification, so hopefully he will explain. I may send a supplementary email, though, based on what you’ve pointed out above.

We do have the address of the neighbour, btw. He had a second property (possibly shared with a sibling), and that’s where he’s now living.

Thank you again. This is a very confusing situation for me.