There are several ways of funding your case. McMillan Williams can advise you on the best way to fund your claim. The general rule in England and Wales is that the loser pays the winner’s costs. This is the same principle that is applied to clinical negligence cases.
Public Funding
McMillan Williams is one of the few firms that have a franchise from the Legal Services Commission to do publicly funded clinical negligence work. This means that if you are eligible for public funding, we can apply for this to enable you to fund your claim. The Legal Services Commission assess your eligibility for public funding based on the income and savings of yourself and your partner.
If you are bringing the claim on behalf of a child, then it is the child’s income and savings that are assessed.
Legal Expenses Insurance
More and more individuals are now able to fund their claims through Legal Expenses Insurance. This is sometimes known as “before the event insurance”. You may have this legal expenses provision attached to some of your insurance policies. Some people have this on their household, contents, buildings or credit card insurance. Most car insurers also provide for legal expenses insurance. If you do have this provision, we will be able to determine whether your insurers will fund your claim or part of your claim for you.
Conditional Fee Agreements (No Win No Fee)
There are many misconceptions about no win no fee agreements, however McMillan Williams offer fair and accurate information about the terms, the advantages and the disadvantages of the agreement.
Before we will offer to fund a claim in this way, we will consider the merits of your claim in full and conduct a thorough risk assessment.
The no win no fee, is an agreement between us as your solicitor and you as our client and relates to our costs in bringing the claim on your behalf. If your claim is successful and you are awarded damages, the other will normally pay all our costs in addition to the damages, which means that you pay nothing. There are some exceptions but we will be able to explain this fully to you before your claim starts. You will receive 100% of any compensation awarded to you unless there are any exceptions.
Sometimes, it may also be necessary to take out an “after the event” insurance policy to protect your position should your case be unsuccessful.
