Are you likely to pay an inflated success fee?
One of the main growth areas in recent years has been Claims Management Companies acting upon behalf of individuals who seek to challenge success fees charged by their own solicitors.
In fact, some Claims Management Companies have arisen seemingly for the sole purpose of challenging and reducing success fees as they allege overcharging by solicitors has become commonplace.
Many firms of solicitors will act upon behalf of clients by way of a no-win, no fee agreement when pursuing a claim for personal injury or medical negligence. This ensures that clients may not initially be responsible for payment of any of the legal costs. However, the vast majority of firms will then charge their clients a success fee payable at the conclusion of the case being a percentage of the damages recovered.
The success fee is supposed to represent the risk of the solicitors conducting the case without any guarantee of payment so it should be calculated having taken into account the particular facts of the claim, including the prospects of success.
However, invariably many firms will simply charge their clients the maximum success fee permitted under the regulations of anything up to 25% of their damages. This means that if an individual recovers say £20,000.00, they are then responsible for paying £5,000.00 to their own solicitors come what may, permanently reducing the damages the injured person keeps from the claim.
Unlike the vast majority of firms of solicitors dealing with personal injury and medical negligence work, we purposely do not charge success fees.
Ann Mahoney, head of the Personal Injury team at M R Law comments:
“Some Claims Management Companies may allege a success fee paid by a client to their own solicitors was too high. However, the process for seeking a reduction is complicated and there is no guarantee of success.
Unlike the vast majority of firms of solicitors dealing with personal injury and medical negligence work, we purposely do not charge success fees, therefore our clients will not have to approach Claims Management Companies to try to reduce any amounts we have charged.
We recover the legal costs from the other party and our clients are not responsible for paying anything. We do not believe any damages correctly belonging to our client should be reduced by paying our legal costs. In our view, there is no need to charge our clients any success fees.”
You will not be responsible for paying a success fee or an insurance premium under a no win, no fee agreement with M R Law. Please contact us to discuss your requirements and to speak directly to a qualified and experienced lawyer.