Litigation can be an expensive process but there are a number of ways that your claim can be funded. We can assess your claim and advise you of the best way of funding your claim.
The different types of funding are:
Public funding (or legal aid)
Before the Event legal expenses insurance
Private funding/After the Event Insurance
Trade Union funding
No win, no fee ( or conditional fee agreement)
Public Funding
To be eligible for Public funding, you will have to be both financially eligible and be able to demonstrate that your claim is worth investigating further. Our specialist team can help you assess whether or not you are likely to be eligible for public funding. You may want to check on the Legal Services Commission website, where you will find an eligibility calculator.
Their website address is www.legalservices.gov.uk Click on Community Legal Service at the top of the page and choose Eligibility Calculator from the drop down menu. Tick on the box that includes other Legal Representation and follow the prompts and instructions.
Please note: if your claim is in relation to your child’s treatment, or in relation to a relative who does not have capacity to handle their affairs by themselves, then your child/relative is likely to be eligible for public funding in their own right. This is because any means assessment is based on their own income and capital.
The Legal Services Commission will not consider your application for public funding unless you can demonstrate that you have pursued your claim through the NHS Complaints procedure first. (See Making an NHS Complaint on our website.)
There are limited exceptions to this:
If the events complained of happened over two years ago, it may be that you are running out of time to pursue your claim and so the application needs to be considered urgently. You will need to seek advice from our specialist legal team about the time limits for pursuing a medical negligence claim, as it is a complex area.
If you are outside the 1 year time limit for bringing a complaint through the NHS Complaints procedure.
If the NHS complaints procedure is not available to you because your treatment was on a private basis.
If you have a potentially terminal illness and cannot delay in investigating your claim.
If your claim is extremely complex and likely to be of high value, such as in the case of a brain damaged baby claim.
If you have already instigated an NHS Complaint and are still awaiting a response after 6 months.
The response that you receive to your complaint through the NHS Complaints procedure will need to accompany your application for public funding.
Please note that we are one of the few specialist firms that hold a legal aid franchise as we have both Panel members of the Law Society’s Medical Negligence Panel and members of the Action against Medical Accidents Panel or (AvMA). Feel free to contact us for further advice on public funding and whether or not you are likely to be eligible.
Before the Event Insurance
You may already have the benefit of legal expenses insurance but not realise it! Check your house contents insurance, any motor or credit card insurance to see if you have taken out cover for legal expenses.
If that is the case, then you will need to make checks with your potential insurer to see if they will cover your claim for medical negligence. Not all insurance products do and some may have restrictions saying that you have a period of time within which to make your claim. It is also worth checking the limit of your indemnity for such cover as it may be insufficient. With these types of policies, they cover both your own legal costs and the defendants’ legal costs should your claim fail. Therefore it is particularly important that you make sure you have sufficient cover to pursue your medical negligence claim. We can advise you further on this. We will ask you to check your insurance position in any event whether you are considering public funding or a no win no fee agreement and will ask you to provide us with copies of your insurance documents and to authorise your insurer to deal with our enquiries on your behalf to check if you have this type of cover.
If you do have this type of insurance, usually your insurer will only allow you to deal with one of their Panel firms.
However, they may not be all that local to you. This could cause you problems if you are disabled and wish to have a more local service. Quite often in these cases we can assist you by completing the claim form on your behalf and seeking your insurer’s agreement to instruct us on your behalf. Once court proceedings are issued however, you have the right to choose your own solicitor to represent you.
Private Funding/After the Event Insurance
You may prefer, if you have the means, to fund your claim by paying for your own legal costs as the case goes along. As medical negligence claims tend to be quite expensive to investigate and we realise most people do not have a bottomless pit when it comes to financing a claim, we would caution against this type of funding, unless there was no real alternative.
By pursuing a claim in this way, you do not have the added protection of any insurance. There are products available to purchase that can protect you after the event and provide cover for both parties costs. The insurance premiums are generally high. However you are likely to need to fund the insurance premium at the start of the claim.
Trade Union funding
This may be another possible means of funding your claim if you are a member of a trade union. However, not all union solicitors are necessarily medical negligence specialists. No Win No Fee Agreements (Conditional Fee Agreements)
If you are not eligible for public funding and have no other means of funding your medical negligence claim, we may agree to take your case on a no win no fee agreement protected by insurance cover. This would involve us carrying out a risk assessment of your case. If we were prepared, following this assessment, to fund your claim in this way, then we would usually be able to insure your case from day one of signing up to the agreement.
It is very important in these cases to make sure you have insurance in place. This protects you (up to a limit of £100K) if you fail to succeed with your claim and covers you not only for any claim for costs brought by the Defendant in your action, but covers the expenses (for example medical report fees), that have been paid on your behalf in order to investigate your claim, including the insurance premium itself. This will also give you peace of mind.
Please note that the insurance premium is deferred until the end of the case and if you are successful, is claimed against the Defendants. The insurance product we use, offers a staged premium, which goes up the nearer you get to trial. This is known as After the Event Legal Expenses Insurance.
If you win, we seek to recover our costs and expenses (for example medical report fees), from the Defendants. You may, however, have to pay an element of our costs out of the compensation you are awarded – this will be discussed with you at the beginning of the case.
There may be exceptions to this, for example where you are pursuing more than one Defendant and succeed against one Defendant but fail against the other. if you are interested in this type of funding more detailed information can be provided to you by our specialist lawyers.
Heptonstalls are renowned experts in dealing with medical negligence compensation claims, both regionally and nationally. For more information call our medical negligence team on 01405 765661 or free phone 0800 387077.
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