After an accident, you may be told by your insurer that you have Legal Expense Insurance attached to your policy and this allows you to have legal representation with your personal injury claim at no cost to you. Now what they say may be true (depending on what agreement you sign), but under most good no win no fee agreements with any good personal injury lawyer, you get representation at no cost to you in any event (again depending on the no win no fee agreement which should be read thoroughly).
Insurers offer this service as it can in allow them to act as a middleman and “sell” your claim to a firm of solicitors by way of a referral fee. In some circumstances, the solicitor your claim is passed over to may simply be the firm paying the highest amount of money to have the case, rather than an independent firm who can provide you with the best service.
If a firm pays for your claim, they have less money to make a profit from, therefore they may decide to spend less time on you claim to maintain their profit margin. This means that your claim may drag on for longer than necessary, meaning a lower level of service for you, and perhaps even less compensation if your solicitor hasn’t got the money to fight hard for your maximum payout. A solicitor has a legal obligation to tell you if they have paid a referral fee for your claim. So check your paperwork.
In summary, it is advisable to do your own research and choose your own law firm to represent you. This way you are leaving the destiny of your claim in the hands of the person who you trust in, and who you have the confidence in to make the best out of your claim.
When choosing your firm, always ask to see the Conditional Fee Agreement (the no win no fee agreement) and read it through thoroughly before signing it. At The Injury Lawyers we are constantly surprised by the sorts of agreements that are out there which may mean the client, i.e. YOU, having to pay money to the solicitors.
At The Injury Lawyers we never use referral agents as all our clients come to us directly. We work on a genuine no win, no fee basis and will give you a free assessment of your potential claim. We offer high service standards making it a policy to update our clients every 2 weeks as we can afford to spend more on our cases as we don’t waste our money on referral fees.