If you’d have asked me this 12 months ago, I would have explained to you that it’s all about making sure your solicitor goes the extra mile when it comes to the service that they offer. But since the government changed the law in April 2013, it’s now more of a case of which lawyers is the cheapest!
Nowadays it’s somewhat of a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow to find a lawyer prepared to find your claim on the basis that you keep all 100% of your compensation if you win. This is because our government decided that victims of negligence should have to pay to claim when they stopped lawyers being able to recover all of their fees from the other side.
For years, lawyers have been able to recover all of their fees, so the victim receives all of what is rightfully theirs. But not anymore!
So here are the key things to look out for when it comes to choosing your personal injury lawyer:
How much will they take from your payout?
First and foremost, be suspicious of any firm that does not advise you they will take a deduction when you first speak to them but it’s confirmed in their paperwork! Your first question to ask should be “how much of my compensation will you take?”
Some lawyers will not explain about the new fee system and you will only find out once they have your details and their paperwork lands at your front door.
Ideally you want a 100% compensation agreement. But what you need to make sure of is this:
- If the claim wins, you do not incur any percentage deduction, and you do not pay any lump sum amount as well.
- You keep the extra 10% you are entitled to recover in damages which was put in place by government to help offset lawyers charging people (for more info on how it all works see our 100% compensation advice page)
- There are no upfront fees or hidden ways of charging you.
For most claims, we, for example, will not recover a Success Fee from you which is the percentage that lawyers are now taking. Most will deduct 25% as this is the max a lawyer can take from your compensation to cover this fee. Because we do not charge this fee to you, you keep all 100% of your payout and you keep the extra 10% as well.
Some lawyers may say its 100% when what they mean is its 100% in relative terms to the previous way of working before the fee change; i.e. they actually take the extra 10% you are entitled to, so in comparative terms you are no less off than before the April changes. So there is still a deduction.
Some will charge for insurance as well, known as After The Event insurance. This is also no longer recoverable from the other side. We self insure the claim so you don’t pay a premium. Again, no cost.
Do not get suckered in to misleading tag line like “100% No Win, No Fee” or “No costs to you” – 100% No Win, No Fee doesn’t mean that you will not be charged if you win, and as a percentage is a deduction it could technically not be classed as a “cost” as such. Some of the marketing can be sneaky.
There is even some saying 100% with a little * next to the sentence and at the base of the page they confirm that they can take up to 25% from your payout! How mad is that!?
We believe the best way of working is ours:
- No deductions so you keep ALL of your payout.
- No hidden or upfront charges so you’re not out of pocket – our charges for our work is recoverable from the other side.
- Upfront advice about funding!
Are they efficient?
So here’s another thing that you should probably take heed of – is the firm of lawyers you’re looking at efficient? Are they specialists in their field? The reason this is important is because:
(1) Most legal agreements state that your solicitor will seek recovery of their fees from the opponent. As fees are generally fixed and argued over, most lawyers fail to recover all of their fees. Good lawyers like us won’t go chasing after our clients for any remainders, but if you’ve got an inefficient firm wasting money on running a case in the improper way, you could end up paying for all that wasted work as they only have to seek to recover the fees! So watch out!
(2) You don’t want a lawyer just dropping your claim because they feel they can’t argue it any further given the risk of not getting paid much if they win. You want a lawyer who knows how to properly prepare a case from the start, or you’re risking wasting months with a firm who won’t be able to get any sort of result for you!
(3) If you succeed, you don’t want a lawyer who pushes you to settle for a low amount as they don’t want to incur any more costs that they can’t recover. We see this a lot in road accidents. The efficient and smart lawyer will fight for the highest payout; the lazy lawyer will push you to settle any old figure!
Those little extra things…
As with any service it’s nice to get a little extra value isn’t it? So here’s what we do for our clients:
- Offer private medical care right from the start of a claim.
- Have extended office opening hours until 10pm weeknights and 9am-5pm on weekends.
- Allow clients to access their claims using a unique portal system.
Never settle for any old lawyer – make sure you’re getting the maximum compensation you can and a proper quality service to boot! After all, you don’t want to end up with less money than you are entitled to and a bad taste in your mouth from a rubbish service.
