Interesting Advantage of Contingent Fee

The abolishment of legal aid in the United Kingdom, paves the way to no win no fee claim or contingent fee. Under this scheme, victims of personal injury can seek compensation without having to worry about the financial risks involved. In a contingent fee agreement, the client can compensate for the injuries including the pain and suffering sustained from an accident caused by others.

An accident can be a car crash, work-related, whiplash, medical negligence, slips/trips/falls or accident in public. Various injuries can be sustained from mishaps. For instance, in car collision, a passenger or driver may sustain whiplash, neck pain, or shoulder pain. Occupational disease can be a lung disease, asthma, burns, skin diseases, cancer or Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS). 

Medical malpractice may involve incorrect prescription of medicines, allergic reaction to drugs, inaccurate diagnosis of an illness, anaesthetic errors, surgical errors, errors in plastic surgery or mistakes in dental treatment. Other incidents that may cause harm to people are slipping, falling from ladders, and tripping a tangled cable. Anyone can be entitled to compensation as long as it is proven that someone else is responsible for it. Lawyers can explain the details of the scheme. It is recommended to ask for legal advice on this aspect.

Why is No Win No Fee Free?

The term “no win no fee” is definitely intriguing. This is because anything labeled as “free” nowadays is sure to be greeted with doubts and skepticism. “Surely there must be some catch,” you might be saying to yourself. However, there is really none. So if the question, “Why is ‘no win no fee’ free?” is one you would like to be answered, then read on.

First, here are some facts. In cases where people are injured as a result of the negligence or hostile actions of others, then those people can claim for compensation from their injurers. The people who usually process their claims are called personal injury lawyers.

Now, the term “no win no fee” comes from a possible agreement that they might choose to have to govern their relationship as solicitor and client. Personal injury lawyers can, if they see that the merits of the case of their clients are strong, decide to represent them without asking for payment for the meantime. What they forego to receive at the time the claim is in process are their hourly fees. Ultimately, if the claim is not successful (no win), then their clients will usually not need to pay them anything (no fee). In other words, in the “no win no fee” scheme, personal injury lawyers are permitting themselves to be paid later or not at all for their services.

Again, why is “no win no fee” free? It is because clients can avail of their legal representative’s services on the condition that if these solicitors cannot make their claims successful, then they will not have to pay them anything.

Who then pays personal injury lawyers if the claims they are handling are successful? The answer is the losing side. Should personal injury lawyers be victorious, whether through a settlement or a dispute, all or most of their fees (including a “success fee”) will be provided by the other side. This is a second sense in which the “no win no fee” scheme is free. In the case of a successful settlement, the client would still not pay his or her solicitor anything because he or she will usually receive 100% compensation and his or her solicitor, depending on their agreement, will not deduct the hourly fees payment from it.

In other words, the answer to the question, “Why is no win no fee free?” is that in the conditional agreement entered into by a client and a solicitor, even in the case of a successful claim, clients will still not have to pay their solicitors’ fees since this will be taken care of by the losing side. Thus, win or lose, in a “no win no fee” scheme clients will usually not have to pay their personal injury lawyers’ fees. They enjoy their services for free.

All in all, it should not be forgotten that the aim of the “no win no fee” scheme is social justice. It was meant to be an inexpensive way to pursue this end. Thus, it was made with the poor and the underprivileged in mind. That is why it prioritizes the merits of a claim over the means of its claimant.

Three Conditions for a Successful Work Accident Claim

 

 photo credits: http://www.accidentsdirect.com/

In order to have a successful work accident claim, employees must generally prove a “preponderance of evidence” with three things:

First, they must prove that their employers owe them a duty of care. This is usually easy to show since most employers are understood to be responsible for maintaining the workplace safe, healthy, and free from foreseeable work accidents as much as possible.

Second, they must also prove that their employers have breached this duty of care. They can show that their employers have been neglectful of their duties and not kept the workplace secure. For instance, they can show that an office vehicle, where serious mechanical glitches have been spotted and reported, has been consistently ignored by their employer.

Finally, employees must also show that it is this breach of duty that is responsible for their injury. Continuing the former example, if because of the glitches in the office vehicle an employee gets involved in a car crash, then chances are high he or she can claim for compensation. However, if the crash was caused not by the glitches in the vehicle, but because the employee was drunk driving, then that employee might not receive any compensation at all.

A Kind of Personal Injury Lawyers to Avoid

Personal injury lawyers are lawyers who specialize in demanding compensation for victims of negligence and hostility. Having one on your side can make your life and your legal battles easier.

However, finding the right personal injury lawyers is not easy. Since most high caliber lawyers rarely advertise themselves or are available only through referral, chances are they will be unavailable to help you. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all is lost. Sometimes, if you cannot hire the best lawyer, then at least you can improve your situation by avoiding the worst.

You should not hire personal injury lawyers who are unreasonable to work with. Your lawyer is your defender, your teacher, and even your friend. He or she will guide you through the labyrinthine thickets of the law, represent your case in the best light possible, and even cater to your emotional needs. If your personal injury lawyer strikes you as more concerned with his or her hourly fees than claiming your compensation, you should not hesitate to look for a replacement.

You should make sure, however, that who you will replace your lawyer with is one who has not been disciplined or suspended by an ethics committee. That is, unless he or she can clearly explain to you the nature of his or her offense and whether he or she has been acquitted or reinstated already. In the field of law, many unethical practitioners do tend to abuse the system—and their clients.

Also, you should be interested to know that in hiring unethical lawyers, you are risking your case in a number of ways. You might be unaware, but your lawyer might be divulging the confidential details of your injury to other people. Moreover, he or she might be charging you exorbitant fees. It is not impossible also for him or her to harass you.

Filing a lawsuit is sometimes complicated, but with the right personal injury lawyers to help you, it can be worth the trouble.