When asked about his nationality, legendary Scottish fiddler, Johnny Cunningham, liked to tell people that he was half Scottish and half Irish. This explained, he said, why half of him wanted to drink all the time and the other half never wanted to pay for it. Everyone prefers a free option if it’s realistic… …and cost is one important aspect of personal injury compensation claims. What is it that personal injury clients want? In many cases they will say that it’s about “justice”. It’s the principle of the thing. In practice, what this boils down to is questions about how much your claim is likely to be worth and how long it is all likely to take to get justice for you. From the solicitor’s point of view, the main question tends to be: “Is there a claim?” - Will we be able to prove someone caused your injury by negligence? And, of course, another important question you’ll have is: “How much is it going to cost me to get help from this solicitor? Cost Continue Reading
After the Event Insurance Articles
Below, you can find our articles dealing with After The Event Insurance – which is an essential means of safeguarding your interests in most no win-no fee claims.
Why a personal injury claim does not guarantee you your day in court
Can you have your day in court, with a personal claim, if that's what you want? Donald Trump used the Rolling Stones’ recording of their 1969 song “You Can't Always Get What You Want" during his 2016 primary and presidential campaigns. Following the Republican National Convention in July 2016, which was widely televised, the Stones went public with their views on the use of the song composed by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. They stated that they did not endorse Trump. They also requested that Trump should stop using their songs to support his message. Despite these requests, Trump continued his use of the song at rallies, even beyond the 2016 presidential elections. It seems that, even if you are the Rolling Stones, you can’t always get what you want. It is also the case that, if you are an injured person with a personal injury compensation claim, you can’t always get what you want – and we’re going to look at some aspects of that in this article. Most people ask if they Continue Reading
FAQs about After the Event Insurance and Speculative Fee Agreements
Given the way we deal with personal injury claims on a ‘no win- no fee’ (or ‘speculative’) basis at Moray Claims / Grigor & Young, we have to have ‘After the Event’ (‘ATE’) insurance in place. ATE insurance is “after the event” in the sense that your accident was the “event”. If you did not have any ‘Before the Event’ insurance in place (e.g. legal expenses insurance included as part of your house contents insurance) and you do not qualify for legal aid, we need to find another way to insure against the risk that your claim will be unsuccessful and a court makes an award of costs/expenses against you. ATE insurance insures against that risk of adverse costs. In this article, we will consider three questions related to ATE insurance and the speculative fees agreement we get you to sign in conjunction with the ATE insurance. Continue Reading
A Comparison Of Personal Injury Claim Funding Methods: No Win-No Fee vs Legal Aid vs Legal Expenses Insurance
In theory, you could run your Personal Injury Claim on a private fee-paying basis. You would have to pay your solicitor interim fees as the case progressed. You would have to pay for all outlays, including recovery of medical records and payment of expert witness fees. If your case went to Court, you would have to bear a hefty risk. Lose your case and you will not only have to pay the fees and outlays of your own solicitor; you will also be responsible for paying the fees and outlays of the opposing solicitor. Depending upon the complexity of the case and which Court any action is raised in, your legal bill would certainly be thousands of pounds and might be tens of thousands of pounds. Unless you have bottomless financial resources (in much the way that insurance companies do) private fee paying arrangements for personal injury claims are generally reckoned to be “a bad idea”. You need to be able to run your claim in a way which costs a lot less and carries a lot less Continue Reading
Personal Injury Claim First Enquiries – How Much Scope For Free Advice?
We end most articles on this blog with a call to action along the lines of “get in touch if you have any questions – all initial enquiries are free”. We’ve received a request for clarification of this. The question came via email - “When is a contract deemed to have started after first enquiry?” I take that to mean: at what point do you get beyond the point of initial enquiry, where everything is "without obligation", and get bound into taking things further with that particular solicitor? With personal injury claim first enquiries, how much scope for free advice do you have? We handle most personal injury claims in one of two ways here and I will try to explain what happens in each case (there's a general summary, below, if you want to skip to that). Legal aid cases If you qualify for some form of legal aid, we will encourage you to sign up for legal advice and assistance, which is the initial form of legal aid, covering meetings, correspondence and Continue Reading
Personal Injury Lawyer In Moray (How To Focus Your Search For A Solicitor)
If you live in Moray or have been injured in an accident which happened in Moray, here are some factors to consider if you need to choose a solicitor to help you with a personal injury claim. Are you going to use a local solicitor or one who is at a distance from you? A Moray solicitor will have local knowledge, which could be useful and give them an advantage over someone who is not based in the area. For some types of accident - for example, pavement tripping accidents - it can be crucial for someone (often, the solicitor!) to visit the locus of the accident as soon as possible after the accident in order to take photographs and make measurements. A local solicitor is going to be better-placed to carry out such work. Or maybe not. Google Streetview and other free online tools mean that a virtual visit to a locus is often possible and this may be sufficient, depending upon the type of accident. So, it may not be essential to have a local solicitor to deal with your Continue Reading
How Much Does A Personal Injury Claim Cost?
Your solicitor’s aim is to maximise the amount of compensation you receive for your injuries and other losses. The “top line” value of your claim needs to be as high as possible, but that’s not all. You also want to try to reduce the amount you will lose in having to pay legal fees from your compensation. For most people who become a personal injury client of Moray Claims / Grigor & Young, you pay nothing to us out of your compensation. In other words, you receive your damages in full, without any deduction. In a minority of cases, though, a deduction does apply. So , how much does a personal injury claim cost? And how can you minimise what you will have to pay out of your damages? As we will see, it can mean the difference between receiving 100% of your compensation and only 80% - and the reduction has nothing to do with contributory negligence. Putting it another way, how would you feel if your claim settled at £75,000 and you only received £60,000 when, Continue Reading
After the Event Insurance (Crucial for No Win–No Fee Personal Injury Claims)
After the Event Insurance is needed to protect you in case you lose your no win-no fee claim After the Event (ATE) insurance is where you take out an insurance policy after a legal problem or dispute has arisen in order to protect you against the risk of having to pay the other side’s legal costs if you lose. Why is this type of insurance important for “no win-no fee” personal injury claims? The difference between winning and losing your claim We have seen how your solicitor will get paid for their work for you on a no win–no fee arrangement if they are successful in getting personal injury compensation for you. It’s one thing to look at a winning scenario but it’s also important to be alive to the possibility that your claim might not succeed. What then? No win–no fee means you won’t have to pay anything to your solicitor for their work, if you lose. However, you could be at risk of having to pay other costs if things don’t work out in your favour. Under no win–no fee, failure Continue Reading