1. finance
2. personal finance
3. insurance

Getting you the compensation you deserve
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FACTSHEET
All you need to know about funding your Claim
There are many different ways to fund your claim and this guide provides a summary:
Before the Event Insurance
This is more commonly known as ‘Legal Expenses Insurance’. When you buy or renew any insurance such as car or home
insurance you may choose to add legal expenses/legal protection to your policy. A legal expenses policy will provide you
with legal cover for certain matters identified within the policy, it can include legal cover for personal injury, product
liability or medical negligence.
When you make any enquiry about a potential claim with a solicitor and you discuss funding; they will ask you whether you
have a Legal Expenses Insurance policy in force for the time of the accident and/or negligent treatment. If you do, they will
then look at whether this policy specifically covers you for the claim you are making i.e. medical negligence, road traffic
accident.
If you have Legal Expenses Insurance which covers you for the claim, this will protect you against the risk of having to pay
disbursements (such as the cost of obtaining your medical records and instructing a medical expert) and it will protect you
against the risk of having to pay both the Defendant’s costs should you lose the case and your solicitor’s costs should they
be subject to an adverse costs order.
If you have Legal Expenses Insurance and you make a claim and you receive compensation, the terms of your policy may
allow you to keep the whole amount and your solicitors will not deduct a success fee at conclusion of the claim.
Legal Expenses Insurance may also be found attached to some credit cards or be provided if you are a member of a Trade
Union.
Public Funding/Legal Aid
Public Funding is most commonly known as Legal Aid. In the past, Legal Aid has been available for a wide number of issues
but as the law has progressed, the funding has become less readily available.
In terms of personal injury, Legal Aid is only available for babies who are brain damaged during birth or in the first 8 weeks
of life. This means that Legal Aid will be available for these types of cases and will fund the cost of investigating the case.
However, choosing to proceed down this route means that you must instruct a firm who are franchised to undertake Legal
Aid work.
This is just an option and you are under no obligation to use this method of funding. Should you wish to instruct solicitors
who are not in a position to carry out Legal Aid work, you can continue to instruct them using a different method of funding.
Private Funding
Whilst private funding can be used, we would not recommend that you proceed financing your claim in this way. Private
funding essentially means that you pay up front for a solicitor to investigate your claim. As some solicitors can charge
anywhere up to £325.00 per hour, this can be a very expensive way of pursuing a claim.
Given the range of other funding options available to you, this is not the most efficient way of funding your claim.
Cardiff Office
First Floor, Unit 2a Oaktree Court
Mulberry Drive
Cardiff Gate Business Park
Cardiff
CF23 8RS
Bristol Office
Citypoint
Temple Gate
Bristol
BS1 6PL
Getting you the compensation you deserve
Call us on
0808 165 5000
Conditional Fee Agreement
Conditional Fee Agreements (CFA) are commonly known as ‘No Win, No Fee’ agreements and are the most common form
of funding.
Conditional Fee Agreements or CFAs are designed so that, should you lose your case, or at any point your claim does not
have reasonable prospects of success to continue, you will not be asked to pay your solicitor for the costs they have
incurred to date in investigating your case. The costs will be written off unless the CFA has been terminated due to a
breach of the agreement by you.
In addition if your case is unsuccessful, in certain instances, the Court can make an Order specifically against you in respect
of costs. This can occur if the claim is struck out, for example due to a failure to comply with a Court Order or if it is
determined that your claim is fundamentally dishonest.
If your case is successful, there may be instances where you are liable for some costs. This can be the case if your
compensation does not exceed an offer previously made by a Defendant, you accept an offer out of time or the claim
includes an element which is of financial benefit to somebody else.
In practice, a Conditional Fee Agreement will remain a No Win, No Fee agreement and you will not be asked to pay
anything if you comply with its terms.
Should you win your case, you are technically responsible for the costs and the disbursements we have incurred in
investigating your case. However, under the Conditional Fee Agreement, we can pursue the Defendant directly for our
costs, so you will not have to pay them out of your compensation.
Whilst we will pursue our costs from the Defendant, you will still be responsible for our success fee should your claim be
successful.
Success fees used to be paid to the Claimant’s solicitor by the Defendant in addition to the Claimant’s costs. The new
reforms which came into force on 1 April 2013 mean that Claimant’s solicitors can no longer claim their success fee from
the Defendant and now must claim this from their client.
A success fee reflects the amount of work which your solicitor has undertaken on your behalf; the risk that your case may
not be successful, meaning they may not get paid at all; and finally that they will not be paid until conclusion of the claim.
The success fee payable by you is equivalent to 100% of our basic costs.
However, when we are calculating the success fee payable, we will always take the following steps:
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Firstly, we will deduct from your compensation any monies owed to the Department of Work and Pensions (in
practice, the Defendant will deduct this and pay this directly)
Secondly, we will set aside any money in your compensation which is recovered for future treatment as a success fee
cannot be deducted from this money
From the remaining compensation we will calculate 25% of this amount. This will be the success fee.
However, if the 25% calculated is higher than 100% of our basic costs we will only deduct a sum as our success fee which is
equivalent to our basic costs.
When entering into a Conditional Fee Agreement we will provide you with a list of our hourly charge out rates as these
calculate our base costs along with 20% VAT.
The only other cost you will be responsible for is the premium of any After the Event Insurance policy we take out on your
behalf. Please speak to one of our advisers who will be able to advice on the likely cost of the premium and whether it will
be incorporated into the 25% success fee or whether you will have to pay this in addition.
Cardiff Office
First Floor, Unit 2a Oaktree Court
Mulberry Drive
Cardiff Gate Business Park
Cardiff
CF23 8RS
Bristol Office
Citypoint
Temple Gate
Bristol
BS1 6PL
Getting you the compensation you deserve
Call us on
0808 165 5000
There are certain responsibilities imposed on us as your solicitor and you as the client throughout the course of the
Agreement.
In essence, we as your solicitor must:
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Always act in your best interests
Explain to you the risks and benefits of pursuing legal action
Provide you with our best advice regarding offers of settlement
Provide you with the best information regarding the likely costs of your claim
As our client, under the Conditional Fee Agreement your responsibilities will include:
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Provide us with instructions so that we can complete our work properly
Not asking us to work in an improper or unreasonable way
To not deliberately mislead us and to co-operate with is
To attend any medical appointment or Court hearing we may arrange and request your attendance of.
After entering into a Conditional Fee Agreement with us, for whatever reason either you or your solicitor may choose to
cancel the agreement.
If you would like to cancel the agreement, you have 14 days to do so, with no ramifications for yourself. However, should
you chose to cancel the Conditional Fee Agreement after 14 days and we have incurred costs in the matter, we have the
right to charge you our basic costs and disbursements because we will not be able to recover our costs from the Defendant.
Alternatively, if you cancel the agreement in order to instruct another set of solicitors, then we may ask you to pay our
costs and disbursement before we transfer the file to another firm.
We are also able to end the Agreement with you if you do not abide by your responsibilities or reject our reasonable advice
and we will charge our basic costs and disbursements. Only if we do not believe the case has prospects will you not be
liable to pay anything.
If it is ended due to a failure on your part, then again we are within our right to charge you our basic costs and
disbursements. If you fund your case through a CFA then you will also require:
After the Event Insurance
After the Event Insurance works in a similar way to Before the Event Insurance, except, as the name suggests, the insurance
policy is taken out after the incident has occurred.
The main difference between the two insurance types is that with after the event insurance you will be responsible for the
cost of the policy should you receive compensation from the Defendant. The cost of the policy can vary depending on the
area of law applicable to your case, and the stage in the proceedings at which the case settles.
Your solicitor will be able to provide you with specific details of the cost of your individual policy and the amount of the
success fee. This will be discussed with you at the outset of the claim.
Please do not feel overwhelmed by this information, whilst it can seem daunting, funding is relatively easy in practice and
a No Win, No Fee agreement stays true to its name.
For further information on any of these types of funding or to speak to one of our specialists regarding a potential claim,
please do not hesitate to contact Secure Law via our Live Chat section or feel free to call us on 0808 165 5000 where we
will be only too happy to assist.
Cardiff Office
First Floor, Unit 2a Oaktree Court
Mulberry Drive
Cardiff Gate Business Park
Cardiff
CF23 8RS
Bristol Office
Citypoint
Temple Gate
Bristol
BS1 6PL