Funding a claim
There are a number of possible ways to fund a claim. These are:
Public Funding (Legal Aid)
It is still possible to get Public Funding for clinical negligence cases subject to financial qualification. Maxwell Hodge are one of the relatively few firms in the country to hold a Clinical Negligence Franchise from the Legal Services Commission.
We will check if you qualify for Public Funding and will apply on your behalf where appropriate. Some clients will need to make a financial contribution out of capital or income towards the costs of Public Funding. A contribution out of income is payable on a monthly basis.
“Before the Event” (Legal Expense Insurance)
You may already be covered by an existing insurance policy which provides legal expense insurance. You should check your personal household contents, motor and travel policies to see if any of these may provide legal expense cover for your claim.
Conditional Fee Agreements - “No Win/No Fee”
No Win/No Fee may be available for clinical negligence claims. We will firstly offer you a free interview to enable us to assess your case and to determine how it might be funded. If, in our opinion, you have a good case we may offer to represent you on a no win/no fee arrangement.
This is an agreement where we act for you on the basis that we do not get paid if your case is unsuccessful, although you may still be expected to pay the disbursements that are incurred in investigating the claim.
If the case does succeed we are entitled to charge a success fee as well as basic costs to reflect the risk that we are taking.
You purchase an insurance policy which protects you from having to pay the opponent’s costs if your case is not successful.
The success fee is set on a case by case basis. It is possible to recover at least some of the success fee and the premium for the insurance policy from your opponent if the case is successful.
We will not enter into a Conditional Fee Agreement until we are able to adequately assess the strength and value of a case.
“After the Event” (Legal Expense Insurance)
This is insurance cover which can be purchased after the incident which leads to the legal claim. Such policies provide cover for your costs and your opponent’s costs if your case does not succeed. A range of policies exist and we would need to obtain the most competitive quote once it was possible to assess the strength and value of your case.
Trade Union Help
If you are a member of a Trade Union they may be able to assist you with the legal expense of your claim.
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