According to sources from the Daily Mail, Kenneth Clarke is aiming to hit hard on the “greedy solicitors” who operate under No Win No Fee deals that end up costing parties at fault thousands of pounds in legal fees. It’s quite a bold statement, and quite a bold article. We at The Injury Lawyers of course believe it’s important to analyse the real situation; so let’s take a look at the report and see what our government are planning to do:
Described as a “radical shake-up”, the report advises that Clarke aims to stop the “ambulance-chasing lawyers” from “cashing in on frivolous cases.” Although it appears that No Win No Fee isn’t actually going to be scrapped; what is being reviewed are the success fees that solicitors are entitled to for winning a case; which operates on a sliding scale basis relevant to the risk of the case. The article is of course is more than happy to point out the obvious one that often hits the news; seemingly increasing NHS bills from negligence claims against them.
The report goes on to mention libel cases that are affecting freedom of speech – we will not touch on this subject given that we of course only deal with claims for personal injury.
So, what is the Success Fee that the government aims to scrap? The success fee is an additional cost solicitors are entitled to claim for which is proportionate to the risk of the case. The source states that this is set at 100% of the costs incurred by the solicitor; this is in actual fact not completely true. The success fee is calculated on a sliding scale basis – for road accidents, the fee is at just 12.5% of the restricted recoverable costs solicitors are entitled to recover under the new Road Traffic Accident Protocol that came in to effect at the end of April this year. We of course only get paid for the work that we do, and for most straight forward road accidents, the fees are at an already pre-set amount.
For a work accident claims, the fee is usually around 25%. The 100% fee is normally used for cases which are much more difficult to win; or normally if the case proceeds to court given the high costs of having to take a case to court in the first place. The losing side is then liable for all court costs accordingly.
The claimant’s payout is not normally connected to the amount the solicitor receives; the fee is based on the amount of work we actually do. This is largely dictated by whether the other side will try and defend the claim needlessly.
So, why are we entitled to a success fee? It’s every claimant’s right to access the justice they deserve. Sometimes however, after extensive investigation, it can come to light that the opposing party has not been negligent. If this is the case, the claimant is not normally entitled to any compensation. If this is the case, the other party is of course not responsible for the claimants legal fees.
Unfortunately, this can only be determined by a solicitor being instructed and investigations from the other side commencing. This is where the No Win No Fee comes in to play – no one would ever claim if there was a genuine risk they could end up with a legal bill after investigations show no negligence in a case. Who would ever want to risk it? This would leave countless victims to afraid to claim; missing out on the compensation they are entitled to receive for their suffering and loss.
We only take on a claim if we think it is going to win – and the claimants injuries must be sufficient enough to warrant a claim involving a solicitor (normally dictated if the injury is worth £1000 or more). The idea of the claimant having to lose a proportion of their award to pay for legal fees is concerning – it’s not the claimants fault they were involved in an accident – it’s the party at fault who are responsible. They are at a loss if they end up having to pay for legal fees. Why should the claimant lose out when the accident was through no fault of their own? Simply put, they shouldn’t – which is why the success fee burden is on the party at fault – the success fee is there to cover the fact that solicitors must unfortunately incur significant costs in cases that do not win. We can only determine the cases that do not win by actually taking them on.
The article also addresses the common idea that all lawyers are entitled to fees worth sometimes ten times what the claimant receives in damages. Simply put – we only get paid for the work we do; which in road accident cases is restricted to set amounts as previously mentioned. So, cases with huge legal fees means only one thing – the party at fault will have tried to needlessly defend the case and have ended up losing. We can only take a claim to court if we believe the chances of winning are more than reasonable – and insurance companies as a standard will happily try to dispute a claim to save themselves from paying out. In many ways they are the making of their own destruction – why try to defend a legitimate claim and end up losing at court?
It’s important to remember that the companies the article describes are, at the end of the day, at fault for accidents. Their negligence has caused someone to end up being hurt. How would you feel if you were injured because someone else cared too little to follow important health and safety rules and regulations?
The rules are their – if they were followed, there wouldn’t be any claims or issues to debate about.
Everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion; however, we reject the idea that all firms of solicitors are “greedy”, and we dislike the idea of having to charge clients for our work given that they are the innocent party. As mentioned earlier, we simply get paid for the work we do – and our industry is highly regulated to prevent unethical behaviour.
One opinion from a responder to the article requested to discuss the issue of the greedy politicians – which gives some interesting food for thought on the subject of the character of the politicians who claim they are there to make the sensible decisions and fight against the greedy companies. We may be currently entitled to seek extra fees for riskier cases that we have to do more work on to win – but there certainly isn’t a moat surrounding the office here at The Injury Lawyers HQ!
But joking aside, I can assure you I have personally never chased an ambulance before! But we welcome all opinions; so feel free to get in touch with your views on the issues surrounding the debate, particularly if you have been helped by an injury lawyer before.
