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If you were injured whilst in a vehicle then, as long as we consider you have reasonable prospects of success, we can proceed with your claim under a Conditional Fee Agreement (no win, no fee).The main points to note on entering a Conditional Fee (or No Win-No Fee) Agreement are as follows:-

 

If you win…

We are unable to recover any legal costs from your opponent if your claim for personal injuries is valued at less then £5,000.

 

In cases of this nature, we will charge you a success fee of 25% including VAT of the amount of general damages (personal injuries) you receive.  As we are unable to recover costs from your opponent you are also liable for our costs however, we will limit these to ensure that the total amount we deduct from your personal injury amount is no more than 40% (including VAT). 

 

If your claim for personal injury is worth more than £5,000 then your opponent will have to pay for most, although probably not all, of our legal costs (excluding the success fee).  The success fee we charge for these types of cases is 25% of your personal injury settlement.

 

We cannot give an exact figure at this stage as there are a number of factors which can influence the costs such as the nature of your claim, the severity of your injuries/the conduct of the other party and/or their Insurers and Solicitors/etc. 

 

We will update you as to the current costs incurred on your case every 3-6 months. 

 

From 31 May 2021 the Government introduced the Whiplash Tariff which provides set amounts of compensation for any whiplash injury, to the neck, back and shoulder.  A copy of the current Whiplash Tariff can be found here.  An injury to another part of the body, which isn’t associated with the neck, shoulders or back is valued by reference to the JCG Guidelines and can be properly assessed once a medical report has been obtained.

 

We have however set out below an estimate of our costs in dealing for a personal injury arising from a road traffic accident which settles without the need for Court proceedings to be issued:

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Example

 

If your personal injury claim is worth less than £5,000

Success fee = 25% of damages we agree for the personal injury element of your claim PLUS Payment of our costs which will be capped to total no more than 40% of the value of your personal injury claim (including the 25% success fee).

 

So if your personal injury claim is worth £520.00 then our charges will be £208.00 inclusive of VAT and you would receive £312.00.

 

Disbursements (costs payable to other organisations)

 

GP Medical Report = £271.20

 

If your personal injury claim is worth more than £5,000

Success fee = 25% of damages we agree for the personal injury element of your claim.   

 

Disbursements (costs payable to other organisations)

 

GP Medical Report = £271.20

 

Our Costs

 

*14 hours of work at £288.00 per hour = £4,032.00

VAT @ 20% = £806.40

Total = £4,838.40

 

Total expected £5,109.60

Plus 25% of your personal injury settlement amount

 

*A personal injury claim made as a result of a road traffic accident which does not require the court’s involvement typically needs 12 – 14 hours of the Lawyer’s time.  The number of hours depends on the circumstances of your case and the experience of the person doing the work.

 

Any claim which is made in respect of a road traffic accident may be subject to either Fixed Costs (if your accident occurred before 01 October 2023) or Fixed Recoverable Costs (if your accident occurred on or after 01 October 2023).  This is set out within Part 45 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 ("CPR").

 

So if the date of your accident was before 31 October 2023 and the value of your personal injuries are over £5,000 then your claim will be subject to Fixed Costs.  We e have set out tables regarding fixed costs within the PDF document here 

 

If the date of your accident was after 31 October 2023 and the value of your personal injuries are over £5,000 then Fixed Recoverable Costs ("FRC") will apply.  These are set out within the CPR - Practice Direction 45 - Table of Fixed Costs (click here to be taken to the website page - opens in a new window). In order to work out the correct cost bracket then the Track and the Band need to be considered which is detailed below for your ease.

 

Track

If your claim is worth less than £25,000 then your claim would fall within the Fast Track (Table 12) however, if it is worth between £25,000 - £100,000 then it will fall within the Intermediate Track (Table 14).  If your claim if worth over £100,000 then it will be a Multi Track case and FRC will not apply.  In that scenario then your legal costs will be payable on an hourly basis (called standard costs).

 

Banding

Once the Track has been worked out then the banding needs to be considered.

 

In respect of Fast Track, this will depend on your case type.  Ordinarily, your case would be deemed to be a Band 2 case however, there will be occasions when Band 3 would be appropriate.  If there were serious allegations within your case, such as, for example, an allegation of fraud or fundamental dishonesty has been made against you then we would expect your call to fall within the Band 4 column.   Please see attached PDF here (opens in a new window) which gives a detailed  breakdown of the banding definitions for Fast Track cases.

 

In respect of Intermediate Track, this will depend upon the issues in play in your case.  For instance, if there is only one issue in question then it will be suited to being an Band 1 case (for instance, if liability is admitted but the value of your case has not been agreed); if there are two issues in dispute then it would fall within the definition given for Band 2 (for example, if liability and the value of your case are both not agreed).  If your case was more complex issues (such as where there are multiple parties involved or multiple allegations have been made then the case would be suited to Band 3.  If there is a serious issue of fact or law then your claim would be suited to Band 4.  A PDF document which sets out the various stages is contained here (opens in a new window) 

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If you lose…

If the claim does not succeed, you will not have to pay your opponent’s costs other than in the following exceptional circumstances:

 

• If you reject an offer to settle made by your opponent but subsequently at a hearing, the Court fails to award you more (in this case, your liability for your opponent’s costs will be no more than the amount of damages you receive);

• If any part of your claim is found to be fundamentally dishonest;

• You fail to provide us with some information which alters the prospects of achieving a successful outcome in your claim; or

• If your claim is struck out.

 

If you lose your case due to any of the reasons set out above then the opponent’s costs are payable you.  These could be set under the Fixed Costs or the Fixed Recoverable Cost regimes or, alternatively, they could be payable based on the hourly rate of the Fee Earner and the amount of hours they have spent working on the file.  In that scenario, we would expect their legal costs to be approximately £5,000 - £6,000 plus VAT and disbursements but this does depend on the stage of the case and this figure could be much higher.