Ever since the government changed the law in April 2013 there has been a great deal of confusion over why innocent accident victims are losing some of their payout. The gist of things is that the government have stopped you from recovering all of your legal fees from the opponent.
So why is it that in even the most straightforward of claims you may still face a deduction?
The changes – briefly
The government caved to pressure from the insurance giants and stopped innocent victims from being able to recover all of their legal fees from the other side. You can no longer recover your Success Fee or the premium for a policy of After The Event insurance.
Most lawyers take at least 25% because this is the maximum they can deduct from you for the Success Fee. The insurance can range from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds. But a lot of solicitors are taking additional percentages for other fees which they are entitled to do. The cap is just for the Success Fee.
“Why should I lose some of my money – the accident wasn’t my fault?”
We totally agree – but it isn’t us who have changed the law. Contrary to what many people believe, lawyers are not ‘raking in easy money’ from claims. You can only recover your reasonable legal fees, and as you can probably imagine, the fact that the insurers have managed to get the government to push this one through is because their influence far exceeds our own!
We agree that innocent people should not lose any of their payout – but the law is the law. We cannot change it.
“Why should I be charged if my claim is straightforward?”
So turning now to the primary issue at hand for this article, why is it that you should still lose some of your payout when you have been in a dead simple and straightforward accident? If it’s ‘clear-cut’ and an ‘open and shut case’ then what work do we even need to do on it?
Well most cases where the above terms can apply are for road traffic accidents. Now, as well as the government stopping what you can recover, they also grossly slashed what lawyers still can recover for road accidents as well. In fact they cut it by more than two thirds.
We receive a fixed fee of around £500 for a road accident claim. This is not enough to be able to advise you as the client in the process, set up a file, submit a claim, obtain medical evidence, spend time and money on experts and reviewing evidence, collating losses and expenses, and negotiating offers for settlement with the opponent.
I really cannot stress the above point more – £500 is simply not enough.
For us to be able to provide a service for you and ensure you get the maximum amount of compensation possible, we need to spend time and money on your case which we cannot recover. So, unfortunately, the easiest of cases mean the likelihood of an increased deduction.
And that is the way things are now I’m afraid. Most other accident claims are also on fixed fee systems too so you’re potentially in the same boat anyway.
But the good news is this – we normally save our clients a load of money when they claim the safe way with us. With no hidden deductions, charges, or upfront fees for most cases – you’re better off with us.
Give us a call for a free and no obligation chat on 0800 634 7575 today.
