Saddleworth residents warned over personal injury claims
Dramatic changes by the present Government to legal costs rules in personal injury cases will come into play from 1st April. The new rules will mean that awards made in successful cases will be managed completely differently and will affect both solicitors and their clients.
Until now, the rule has been that the losing party must pay the winner’s legal costs. The infamous ‘No Win No Fee’ agreement has been allowed in the past with the solicitor generally being paid a success fee in the event of winning a case as a ‘reward’ for taking on the risk of the claim. This is typically paid by the losing party’s insurance company on top of the solicitors’ fees. However, solicitors are not paid at all if a case is lost.
From April however, ‘No Win No Fee’ Agreements are to be abolished. Solicitors will still have to carry the risk of personal injury cases being lost, but instead of the defendant’s insurers paying the client’s solicitors a success fee, that sum is now proposed to come from the client’s damages award.
To minimise the risk to the client, the Government have stated that they will cap the success fee so that it cannot be more than 25% of the damages recovered and they have also pledged to raise the level of damages by 10%. Therefore, the future of personal injury claims may not be as advantageous for claimants after April 2013 as fees will now be deducted from their final damages award. This in contrast with the previous situation when clients were usually guaranteed 100% of their compensation.
When asked about the changes, local firm Harold Stock & Co Solicitors, who have a large client base in Saddleworth, pointed out the potential impact for client and solicitor.
Director, Darren McGuinness said: “Two recent examples of Saddleworth personal injury clients include a man who was seriously injured by a fall whilst on holiday, and his claim settled for in excess of £1 Million, and a lady who injured her knee after a slip at work was awarded £7,500.00. Whether it’s a thousand pounds or a million, it’s easy to see that future changes in 2013 will potentially have a considerable impact on solicitor and client involved.”
Additionally, not all claimants are aware that their solicitor may pay a referral fee to a claims management company or insurance company who advertise heavily and sell on their accident-related cases.
This will no longer be allowed. A ban on cases being bought or sold is intended to drive the consumer back to his or her local specialist solicitor and cut out the ‘middleman’.
The advice to residents of Saddleworth, should they find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to make a personal injury claim, is to raise these issues with their local solicitor as soon as possible. As ‘No Win No Fee’ Agreements are no longer going to be operational after 1st April 2013, it would be advisable to act now if you are a victim of a recent accident.
For an informal discussion about this, or any other legal matter affecting you, contact Darren McGuinness at Harold Stock & Co Solicitors, in the strictest confidence.
Email: dmc@haroldstock.com
Telephone: (Mossley) 01457 835 597 or (Failsworth) 0161 682 2400
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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