A lot of people who make claims nowadays are wondering why they are finding it so difficult to get 100% compensation when it used to be so easy in the past. In this blog we hope to outline the main changes in the law and what has happened that has unfortunately caused 100% compensation to be mostly a thing of the past.
What Happened?
In the good old days claims were made by clients, and law firms who won those claims were able to get all their reasonable fees they needed from the defendant’s side. This meant that the whole compensation sum went all to the claimer. Unfortunately things changed when the government changed the law so that, as of the 1st April 2013, law firms were no longer able to collect all of their costs from the other side. This means that costs must be taken out of the lump sum that is won in the claim to cover those fees that can no longer be recovered.
So, in short, it’s not that law firms have gotten too greedy; it’s that the law changed and forced them to take what they need from the compensation instead of getting it from the defendant’s side. The amount that can be claimed was also significantly slashed as well.
What is the amount taken from my compensation?
Unfortunately there is no simple answer for this question as it varies from case to case and from solicitor to solicitor. However, a general guideline is that most firms take at least 25% as a success fee as a general figure of what they say they will charge. 25% is common because this is the maximum that can be taken to cover the success fee which cannot be collected from the defendant side anymore.
But watch out! A lot of firms will offer a 25% success fee and then will charge additional fees as well, which could mean you will be giving away up to 40% of the money you deserve! As long as the additional percentages are not classed as the success fee, they can get away with charging more!
At The Injury Lawyers we like to keep things simple. We don’t operate the additional sneaky fees that sit on top of the success fee charge. So unlike others, who will charge lots of separate fees that soon mount up to a large chunk of your money, we keep things simple with clear fees for winning your case so you keep more of your money. This is because The Injury Lawyers believe that you should be able to keep as much as possible of your compensation.
Is there a silver lining?
As grim as all this sounds there is a little good news because the government, to offset the charge that firms cannot collect costs from the other side, have allowed a 10% uplift on general damages. This means that you will be entitled to 10% more compensation for the injury than what you were able to get before the changes in law.
For example, if your injury case was originally worth £15,000, it is now worth £16,500! That’s and extra £1,500 added to your injury compensation!
So, in a nutshell, there has been a big change which means that the days of 100% compensation are largely over – but on the bright side all injury claims are now worth 10% more than they were last year.