Sorry, that’s a bit of a brain-freezer of a headline – but we think this can be ‘good news’ for you, so please read on!
In Scotland, Personal Injury Compensation Claims will usually follow one of three funding routes:
- Legal Aid;
- Legal Expenses Insurance; or
- No win-no fee.
Under Legal Aid, if your claim is successful, you will receive 100% of the compensation in your hands. The rules which govern Legal Aid mean that your solicitor is not allowed to make any deduction from your compensation/damages.
These days, the vast majority of personal injury claims run on a no win-no fee basis.
The essence of no win-no fee is that, if you lose, it costs you nothing. On the other hand, if your claim is successful, your solicitor is entitled to charge what is called a Success Fee, to reflect the risk they have taken in dealing with your claim in a way whereby there was no guarantee they would ultimately get paid for their work.
Hopefully, it makes sense. “No win = no fee”, so “Win = Fee”.
For the last few years, Success Fees in Scotland have been regulated by law.
The maximum success fee a solicitor can charge in the event of a successful claim is 20% of the value of the claim, as agreed or as awarded.
And that’s 20% including VAT, not plus VAT.
For higher value claims, over £100,000 in value, the percentage that can be charged reduces – on a sliding scale.
20% has come to be the industry-standard charge for ‘basic’ success fees in no win-no fee personal injury claims in Scotland.
It’s less than 20% with us, though.
At Moray Claims at Grigor & Young LLP, the bulk of our personal injury clients are local to Moray and our policy is that our “standard” success fee is 10%.
So, for a claim which is settled at £10,000, that means the success fee we will take will be £1,000, compared to a “normal” level of deduction at that sum (i.e. £10,000) of £2,000.
In those circumstances, you, as our client would end up with £9,000 in your hands, rather than £8,000, which would be most likely under arrangements through other providers of personal injury claims services.
We are experienced and accredited in Personal Injury Law.
If you need assistance with making a personal injury compensation claim, get in touch with us via this website or by phoning us
.
This is one of these unusual situations where “10% off” is more in your interests than “20% off”.
You can call us on 01343 544077 or you can send us a Free Online Enquiry.
