Alternatively, those of you working on a construction site will be using power tools, ladders, cement mixers, plant machinery, and all sorts of potentially lethal things; so it goes without saying that adequate training and supervision is needed for the use of this kind of work equipment…

The Law

There are loads of regulations surrounding work equipment, with the majority of them being covered under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992 – or as its informally known, PUWER! These rules and regulations impose the duty on your employers to ensure that work equipment is safe to use, and that you are safe in using it as well.

For more information on the ins and outs of the regulations, visit these sites http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg291.pdf, http://www.healthandsafety.co.uk/provwrk.htm   

The gist and point of these regulations is to ultimately ensure that you, as the valued employee, do not end up injured or harmed through the use of work equipment – especially when so many simple accidents can be so easily avoided!

How This Affects YOU

Basically, any equipment you have to use at work to help you do your job should be covered under the regulations, so long as they are supplied by your employer specifically for the job at hand. So if you injure yourself using a piece of equipment that is designated for another task, or by using your own equipment as oppose to your employers, you risk injury and little chance of a claim.

Your employer must therefore supply, maintain, and replace all work equipment as and when it is necessary to do so. You need to be sufficiently trained in the use of work equipment, with potential dangers of its use being highlighted to you, and the equipment should have appropriate warning signs, guards, or other measures to keep you safe as and when necessary as well. If needs be, you should be supervised whilst using the equipment too.

Your responsibility is to make sure you use the right work equipment for the right job, as instructed, and use it in accordance with your training. What I mean by this is that your own failure to use work equipment safely leaves you open to obvious injury, and again, potentially little chance of a claim.

What Classes as Work Equipment?

As I’ve sort of briefly touched on above, work equipment is basically anything that you need to do your job. I mentioned above that I need a computer to do my job. If you are a window cleaner, you either need ladders or those long stretchy cleaning tools I’ve seen you guys use nowadays to do your job. That’s work equipment. If you’re a bricklayer, you need cement and a trowel at least. If you’re a joiner, you probably need a decent saw, hand or powered, and perhaps an automatic drill, some screws, a hammer, and some nails. All these fall within the category of work equipment.

If you drive lorries for a living, that lorry you drive around every day is classed as work equipment too. You couldn’t deliver three or four tonnes of frozen fish on your back now could you? The lorry you drive to deliver it is classed as your work equipment

Making a Compensation Claim

If you are injured at work through the use of work equipment, dependant on the circumstances surrounding how you were injured depends on whether you can make a personal injury claim or not. If your employer has failed in any of the duties they have for you, you have a good chance of a winning claim. If your accident and injuries were entirely preventable but your employer has failed in the important duty of care they have for you, you may well be owed thousands of pounds in compensation for your pain and suffering.

In some circumstances, your employer is strictly liable for an accident. The way the regulations are worded means that your employer could end up having to pay out if you were injured in an accident that could not have been prevented through inspection and maintenance. This is only in particular cases however; but the fact remains that the high volume of regulations and what they impose on your employer leaves you with a good chance of a winning claim in many circumstances.

The best way of finding out if you have a claim for compensation is to give us a call on 0800 634 75 75 today. That’s our free claims helpline – and at the end of it is a friendly advisor who will be able to have a free and friendly, no obligation, chat about your accident, and let you know in minutes whether or not you have a claim for compensation.

If you do, we could easily help you out using our Genuine No Win, No Fee system that guarantees you 100% compensation if you win, and no costs to pay if you lose.

Your employer has a legal obligation to have a policy of employer’s liability insurance in place to cover you for accidents at work – give us a call and we will let you know if you are eligible to claim from it.

Accidents in supermarkets are not uncommon at all; we are used to helping people out who have been injured through no fault of their own at the local supermarket. I know there’s the initial embarrassment and the feeling like you need to quickly disappear after you slip or trip in front of so many people, but in reality, you could have a claim for compensation for any injuries you receive.

Had a Supermarket Accident? Can You Claim?

If you injure yourself in a supermarket through no fault of your own, say by slipping on a rouge grape on the floor, or perhaps some spilt washing up liquid, or perhaps even on a wet floor as its been raining or the staff have been mopping, or perhaps you tripped over a protrusion or a defect, you may be entitled to claim for compensation for injury and loss.

All supermarkets have an obligation to have Public Liability Insurance, which covers them for any members of the public in the store who ends up injured through negligence. The store itself, i.e. the staff and those in charge, have an important duty of care to look after you and make sure you don’t end up injured whilst in the premises. If you do, and they are found to be negligent, you can claim for compensation for any injuries and losses from their insurance!

From the outset, it’s difficult to establish whether you have a definite claim or not. Normally it all comes down to what sort of inspection and maintenance systems the supermarket has, and what preventative measures they employ to stop accidents from happening. For example, for a supermarket to defend a claim, they would have to prove that they had a regular system of inspection and maintenance in place that prevents accidents from occurring as much as is reasonably possible. Say, half hourly checks of all aisles, and a clean as you go policy for all staff.

Where hazards appear and measures need to be taken, those responsible must ensure to cordon off dangerous areas, place wet floor signs or other signage down, and ensure no one ends up harmed.

Making a Claim

If the supermarket fails to properly look after their visitors, that’s when you can make a successful clam for compensation. Making a claim is easy – call a specialist injury law firm like us to firstly find out if you have a chance of a winning claim or not. If you do, we can help you out on a Genuine No Win, No Fee basis, that means you receive 100% compensation if you win, with all legal fees recovered from the other side or written off if they can’t be recovered, and no costs to pay if the case loses.

According to sources from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16736385) Mr Mas has been taken in to custody in Marseilles, where his lawyer has told a news agency that “he is not well, he is tired and he is waiting for his doctor.”

Investigations that date back to May 2010 in France confirmed that the company P.I.P had been using low grade silicon that is commonly used for industrial purposes in the production of mattresses and pillows, and is not to the standard of the European CE Mark approved gel that had originally been used. The silicon has the potential to cause irritation, and may even affect the victims DNA if ongoing tests conclude such dangers.

What’s worse is that there is only a single exo layer containing a high volume of the gel, making leaks likely and explosion a serious and dangerous possibility. The potential of the gel leaking or the implant rupturing is scarily high according to this information.

A lawyer representing women who had been fitted with P.I.P implants has commented saying “This is a relief. It’s come late, but at least it’s happened.”

The report goes on to confirm that Mr Mas had allegedly informed police in an interview that his company had been deceiving European inspectors for 13 years. Employees were ordered to hide the industrial grade gel they were using when inspectors where visiting; this news only increasing the disgracefulness of what can only be described as a cold, calculated and uncaring way one French company saved money and increased their profit margins at the expense of hundreds of thousands of innocent women.

Mr Mas is also allegedly maintaining his stance that the silicon is harmless, and commented that he has “nothing to say” to the women who have filed complaints to, in his view, “make money”. All I personally have to say to that is that the evidence so far speaks for itself – and I imagine there’s a reason why the gel he used was not to the standards for implants and a reason why he appears to have tried so hard to hide the fact he was using it!

If you are worried that you may be the victim of P.I.P breast implants, contact us free on our claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 today, and we will look in to whether or not you have the implants, and whether you could potentially have a claim.

We strongly believe that you should have a claim for the pain and suffering of any leakages or bursts, as well as the associated suffering and inconvenience, as well as physical and psychological scarring that comes with further operations. The losses involved, like lost earnings from time off work, medical expenses, travel expenses, and care and assistance from family and friends will also be assessed.

The potential for women in the UK to make a claim is there according to our own research, and our specialist medical negligence team has been assembled to take on cases and advice people who believe they may have a claim. Follow this link for more information, or call us on 0800 634 75 75 and we will do all we can to help you out.

So, if you’ve had an accident at work, and you’re looking for a work accident compensation claim lawyer, look no further, and take note of this three part guide that will fill you in on what you need to know.

1. Your Position and Employment is Protected

The first thing that commonly makes people think twice about making a claim against their employer is the affect a claim could have on their employment. In times of financial hardship, people worry that their jobs could be on the line if they were to sue their employers.

Trust me when I say there is literally no need for you to panic. You are protected by law and you cannot be sacked or treated any differently for making a claim against your employer. If this were to happen, you would have another simple claim against them for unfair dismissal if you lost your job, or perhaps constructive dismissal if you feel you had to leave after the way you were being treated. So for this reason, you shouldn’t worry – your employers know the law, and they would be stupid to attempt anything unsavoury

Plus, your employer has a legal obligation to have a policy of employers liability insurance to cover their employees for making claims. It’s not actually your employers that pay out: it’s the insurers! The insurance exists for employees injured in the line of duty to claim from, so it’s perfectly natural and normal to make a claim from it. It’s there to be used.

Furthermore, we find nowadays most employers are quite happy for you to make a claim from the insurance. After all, you’ve been hurt in the line of duty for them, and they have insurance for you to claim from. We often find nowadays people call us and actually tell us their employers advised them to talk to a No Win, No Fee lawyer and make a claim! This is great, as it’s an amicable process anyway, and our job is to simply ensure your interests are protected.

2. It Shouldn’t Cost You a Penny

This is of course entirely dependent on the No Win, No Fee agreement you enter in to. If the claim loses, you should not have to pay a single penny to your lawyers. If it wins, you should receive 100% compensation with no costs to pay as all your lawyers legal fees are recovered from the insurance directly.

Yes, that’s right – your employers insurance even covers your legal fees for making a claim!

With a Genuine Agreement, it shouldn’t end there – it should have an extra part to say that they will restrict their fees to the amount which they recover from the other side. This essentially means that your lawyer writes off any unrecovered, fees meaning you get to keep all 100%; guaranteed.

3. There’s More Than Just the Money

There’s more to making a claim than financial compensation you are duly owed for your injuries at work. On that side of things, you are entitled to claim a sum for the pain, suffering, and inconvenience the injury has caused you, and you are entitled to claim for any losses incurred – such as lost earnings, or travel expenses, etc.

With a good lawyer like us, we recognise that you may need treatment; fast! That’s why we can arrange funding for private medical care that can cover physiotherapy, chiropractic, or osteopathic treatment right from the start of the claim. If we win the case, we will seek to recover the fees from the insurers, and if the cases loses, we can look to recover the fees from a policy of insurance. So, in a worst case scenario, if your claim loses, at least you can get access to private medical care to help you back on the road to recovery!

If you have had an accident at work and you want to know whether you have a claim for compensation, call our free claims helpline today on 0800 634 75 75 for a friendly, no obligation chat. We will happily answer all of your queries, and start your claim on a same day basis if you are happy for us to do so. There’s no waiting around for lengthy contracts or huge legal documents – it’s simple and fast to get your claim started with us over the phone!

If you are unfortunate enough to be suffering with a severe injury, you will probably be considering the avenue of making a claim a little more carefully – ultimately, your claim could be worth a lot of money, which means two things – 1. You want to make sure you get 100% of the maximum amount you are entitled to claim for; and 2. The insurers for the other side will not want to pay you a huge sum of compensation as it costs them a lot of money – they are far more likely to try and defend your claim and reduce your payout by any means they possibly can.

What I’m saying here is that if you have suffered a serious injury, you need, and I mean NEED, a specialist personal injury lawyer representing you for your claim to make sure you miss out on nothing. So, here is a guide as to what you should look for in your injury lawyer:

100% Compensation Guaranteed – The Genuine No Win, No Fee.

Firstly, we lawyers will only ever take on a case if we think we have a good enough chance of winning it; however, if we think it’s a difficult claim we may still help you out if you are seriously injured. What you need to make sure is that the agreement confirms that if the case loses, you owe nothing – not a single penny – to your lawyers. There should be no fees, costs incurred, insurance premiums no nothing – no bills to pay whatsoever!

If the case wins, you need to make sure that you will get 100% of your compensation, and you need to make sure that this is backed up and guaranteed in writing in the agreement you enter in to. Most standard agreements normally say that your solicitor will only seek to recover your legal fees back from the other side. With a Genuine Agreement, it shouldn’t end there – it should have an extra part to say that they will restrict their fees to the amount which they recover from the other side. This essentially means that your lawyer writes off an unrecovered fees meaning you get to keep all 100% of your compensation without the risk of having to pay a huge legal bill that couldn’t be settled with the other side.

Specialist Injury Lawyer

As I kind of mentioned before, you need a specialist personal injury lawyer you can trust to fight tooth and nail for the maximum payout possible. With a serious injury, the other side are far more likely to try and defend the claim, or partly pin the blame on you to reduce the payout award, or scrutinise the seriousness of your injury and your losses incurred to save as much money as they possibly can for themselves. That, ladies and gentlemen, is just the way that it is.

What you need to make sure of is that the lawyer representing you for your case has years and years of specialist experience in dealing with serious injury claims. You need a lawyer who isn’t afraid to take on the insurance companies and make sure you receive the maximum amount of compensation you are legally entitled to receive. You need a lawyer who is smart enough to out think his / her opponent and win any legal battles during the course of the claim.

Choose carefully – do your research and homework, and make sure you get the best lawyer you possibly can. Or just call us on 0800 634 75 74 because we personally think we can easily offer you the best service and legal expertise possible!

Medical Treatment

Serious injuries usually need some serious medical assistance – fast! We offer private medical care for all of our clients and it doesn’t cost you a penny. If we win the case, we will get the fees paid for by the other side, and if it loses, the fees are covered by insurance.

So, as well as the usual stuff you have to do, like R.I.C.E – Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation – or the usual medication you are provided with, what you don’t have to do is wait around on lengthy NHS waiting lists to get the treatment you need right away. It’s all sorted with a good injury lawyer like us!

What To Do!

If you have been involved in an accident that was caused through no fault of your own, and you are looking for a law firm with particular proven expertise in dealing with high value, multi-million pound, and serious injury cases, we recommend that you speak with us as soon as you can.

Just call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 for a friendly, informal, no obligation chat about your accident and injuries.

Anyone who loses out on earnings through being unable to work is entitled to make a claim for this loss that forms as part of their overall compensation claim. Your claim comes in to two parts – General Damages, and Special Damages. General Damages covers the injury itself, and Special Damages covers the financial loses, to which lost earnings are a part of.

Its normally pretty easy to work it out as well – if you have two weeks off of work and you are paid absolutely nothing, you are entitled to claim two weeks work of full earnings back. If you were paid Statutory Sick Pay, then you claim back the difference between that and the lost earnings. If you receive half pay through a company sick pay policy, than you claim back the other lost half as part of the claim.

The idea is to put you back in the position you were in financially before the accident occurred – i.e. like the accident never happened. We can’t take the injuries and the pain and suffering away from you, but we can compensate you for it and make sure that any financial losses you incur are recovered as part of the claim.

We normally work it out by assessing what you were earning 13 weeks on average before the accident. Your lawyers will normally ask you to provide 13 weeks’ worth of wage slips prior to the date of your accident to work out what you have lost out on.

There are of course certain factors that can make it a little more complicated to work out exactly what it is that you are entitled to claim for. If you receive regular bonuses, or were due to receive a bonus for a particular month you were off, or if there is any form of fluctuation in your earnings that you have lost out on, it can still be accounted for. All losses are a grey area when it comes to claiming for them, but with the right evidence and documentation to prove your loss, you shouldn’t have any trouble recovering them.

If you are self employed, we can review profit and loss accounts for three years prior to your accident to look at how much you have potentially lost out on. In circumstances like these, it all comes down to individual circumstances. With an expert personal injury lawyer on your side, they will guide you through the process of making sure that you don’t lose out financially whatsoever.

Any good injury lawyer will do all they can to ensure that you are put back in the financial position you were in before the accident ever happened. Make sure you go for a specialist injury lawyer to ensure that your claim for losses is always maximised.

For advice on lost earnings or claiming for compensation, or to start a claim with us, a specialist firm of independent personal injury lawyers, call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 today.

Given just how much whiplash is in the news, you probably didn’t even need a doctor to tell you that you’ve got it. The accident you were in was not your fault, and you now want to know what you can do when it comes to claiming compensation for one of the most under-estimated injuries I’ve personally ever heard of (and felt!); and one with a wrongfully bad air of press around it.

Well – here are the answers.

To value a whiplash claim accurately and fully, you actually need expert medical evidence from an independent medico-legal consultant. Once you have a report, you need a fully qualified specialist personal injury lawyer to review the report and value your claim. Without this vital combination, you can only expect guesswork, estimates, and the poor attempts at under-qualified non-experts like those often found on the insurers side to try and give you an amount.

Whilst its not ideal, I can give you my experience and knowledge to give you a rough estimate as to how much your claim could potentially be worth, based on statistics, averages, and the third vital thing often used in valuing claims that I didn’t touch on before; the Judicial Studies Board Guidelines.

The Judicial Studies Board Guidelines (or “JSB” Guidelines”) place injuries in to brackets for the purposes of valuing them with a medical report and your expert lawyer. So, I can give you those brackets for you to attempt to “self-diagnose” yourself; but like I say, you still need the medical report and an injury lawyer to know which bracket your injury fits in with, and how much precisely your claim is worth.

For this example, here are the brackets for neck injuries according the JSB Guidelines:

Minor Whiplash Injuries

These are generally worth between £1,000.00 – £5,000.00 roughly. The majority of people suffering from a whiplash injury will fall within this category. The statistical average payout for a minor whiplash claim does fall smack bang in the middle at £2,500.00.

Moderate Whiplash Injuries

The JSB Guidelines here state approximately £5,000.00 to anywhere up to £15,000.00. You have to have been suffering for a long time, and been in quite a lot of pain, to fall within this category.

Many people will incorrectly self-diagnose themselves in this category as the safe middle ground, and many doctors will term your whiplash as “moderate” or “moderately severe”. This is separate to the brackets we use above – so don’t take the definition given by your doctor as the right diagnosis for the brackets above.

Severe Whiplash

For this, we are talking years of suffering, and a lot of pain! It’s very rare to fall within this category, and your injuries could be compensated for a sum as great as £80,000.00 or more! For this category, it’s just too difficult to give you any in between brackets. You need the experts on your case for this – there’s no doubt about it.

Valuing YOUR Claim

To have a look at what your claim could be worth, use our calculator on our home page at www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk.

Getting the MAXIMUM Compensation

To get the maximum amount of compensation , you need an independent, fully qualified personal injury lawyer to represent you for your case. Here’s a breakdown of the requirements to make sure you attain this – think of it as a checklist to use when instructing your lawyers.

• NO Middlemen – go to a lawyer direct. Do not get one through your own insurers, who will sell your claim on to a solicitor for a referral fee, and don’t go to a Compensation Direct or Accident Advice service who will also do exactly the same, as they are NOT real lawyers. These fees can be anywhere in the tune of £1,000.00 and will either come from you, your compensation, or from your service. Whichever it is, you stand to lose out.
• Genuine No Win, No Fee – this means no fees to pay if you win or lose, no deductions or percentages taken from your payout, no admin or referral fees to pay for, and fees restricted in writing to whatever is recovered from the other side.
• Experienced and Specialist Injury Lawyer – by going through a firm that only deals with injury claims, you stand to receive a bespoke and quality service, for the most obvious of reasons.

For more information or advice, give us a call on 0800 634 75 75.

Special Damages are made up of financial losses that you or even others affected by the claim incur. The common ones are things such as lost earnings from being off of work, medical expenses for treatment or prescription / over the counter medication you have to buy, travel expenses, and another key item called Care and Assistance.

Anyone is entitled to make a care and assistance claim, so long as it can be justified. Care and assistance is for any person making a claim who has to rely upon anyone else to look after themselves. This type of thing is common in serious injury claims, or cases where a debilitating injury has been sustained – such as any limb disability from, say, a broken leg, or dislocated arm, etc. Naturally, these types of injuries usually result in serious mobility impairment – everyday tasks can become a struggle, or even nigh impossible, in some circumstances.

What Can Care and Assistance Cover?

Care and assistance can cover so many different things. Ultimately, anything that is too difficult for you to do because of your injuries might well fall within this category. Common examples are:

• Personal hygiene – assistance with washing yourself, dressing yourself, etc.
• Cooking – assistance with meal preparation, for example
• Cleaning – household chores, such as vacuuming and surface cleaning, to laundry and the dishes after eating.
• Travel – you may need someone to take you to appointments or treatment clinics.
• Shopping!– as I’m sure you need to survive with your everyday household goods

If you are suffering from a debilitating leg injury for example, perhaps one that has left you in a splint and unable to put weight on the leg, leaving you reliant on crutches, I know for a fact that the stuff mentioned above is likely to be stuff you will need help with. When you’re supporting yourself with crutches using both arms, you don’t have a lot of dexterity to do anything else!

Ultimately, you will need help from a partner, family member, friend, or other associate. So, the next big question is – how do we work this out in to your claim?

Well, you can simply claim back an hourly rate for the person that helped you out. Even if you’re not paying them, which is likely the case in most instances where a partner, family member, or friend assists, you can still claim back a fee for them in the region of around £6.00 – £8.00 per hour. So, if your partner has to help you out around four hours a day, that’s potentially £32.00 that could be claimed back for them. If this goes on seven days a week, that’s £224.00 per week. If this goes on for 10 weeks, the total care and assistance clam could be worth around £2,240.00 which is claimed on top of your payout. That’s a lot of money…

Can You Claim For It?

So long as medical evidence can support your claim for care and assistance, the above is example is one that is common practice in claims. With a debilitating injury that genuinely incapacitates you to such an extent, you’re going to need a lot of help; this is recognised for the claims process.

One thing you should watch out for though is that not all lawyers can be bothered to make a claim for this. We have known examples in the past of law firms that do not bother to make care and assistance claims for their clients – just so they can save some money personally on the work involved for collating this head of claim. Commonly its solicitors that you get referred to through your own insurance company or through some claims company direct or accident helpline that would be inclined to cut corners like this. They pay huge referral fees to insurers and claims companies who act as middlemen for your claim; that leaves them with less money to spend on you and your claim.

If you have suffered an injury that has seriously incapacitated you, it is always advisable to enlist the help of a specialist and independent lawyer to make sure that your claim is fully maximised. Furthermore, you are likely entitled to vital medical care that can easily be arranged at no cost to you.

For more information or advice, please don’t hesitate to call us on 0800 634 75 75 today.

Don’t worry – our team here at The Injury Lawyers are always on hand to advise you! Here is a guide of all that you need to know:

How is My Compensation Valued?

Let’s start right at the beginning – your claiming for compensation because you have been injured through no fault of your own. Your suffering and loss is the cause of someone else’s careless / negligence. You have the human and legal right to make a claim for compensation. But how on Earth do we find out how much you are entitled to receive?

The claim is split in to two primary parts – General Damages and Special Damages. General Damages relates to the compensation you are entitled to claim for which covers your pain, suffering, loss of amenity, and inconvenience that the accident and injury has caused you. This is valued by medical evidence that we organise through a suitable expert consultant.

Special Damages is designed to cover the literal financial losses you have incurred. The idea of claiming for compensation is to get you a payout reflective of your injuries, and then make sure that you are in the financial position you would have been in had the accident never have occurred. So, this amount of compensation goes on top of what you can claim for when it comes to your injuries alone. It’s an addition designed to make sure you don’t lose out on a single penny of your own hard earned cash.

What is Special Damages Made of?

Special damages is made up of several common items, but is commonly accepted as a bit of a grey area as it can potentially include so many things. The common items that make up a Special Damages claim include the following:

• Lost earnings – from time off work where you have not received full pay.
• Medication costs – from prescription or over the counter meds that have helped you through the injuries
• Treatment costs – such as physiotherapy (although any good lawyer would sort out finding for this right from the start of the claim anyway)
• Travel expenses – to and from appointments, for example
• Care and assistance – from family members or friends assisting with your daily chores and tasks
• Replacement cost of damaged items of clothing

Ultimately, anything that you have financially lost out on that is a direct result of the accident or the injuries you have suffered with could be included in the claim.

If I Don’t Claim for Special Damages, Does this Affect My Claim At All?

Many people get a little worried and think that you have to have a claim for Special Damages to make a claim at all. This isn’t the case; Special Damages is an addition to the compensation you are entitled to receive for your injuries and suffering. If you’ve been lucky enough to not have lost out on anything, don’t worry about it – you will still receive your General Damages payout.

If you have any questions or queries about any aspect of claiming for compensation, please feel free to call us on 0800 634 75 75.

Sadly, the term No Win, No Fee doesn’t quite give you the full heads up now does it? But fear not – here’s a guide as to how it all works.

There are MANY Forms of No Win, No Fee

The majority of firms probably have different terms and conditions surrounding their No Win, No fee agreement. So, what you think you may know about the No Win, No Fee actually depends entirely on the lawyer.

Most lawyers use the standard No Win, No Fee agreement. The wording of this agreement generally means that, if your lawyer takes on your case on a No Win, No Fee basis, you will not have to pay any fees if the case is not successful however you do still have a liability to pay the fees until the claim is unsuccessful.

It should basically do exactly what it says on the tin – you lose the case, you lose no money. However, it’s wise to check out the terms of the agreement as there are lawyers out there who are not too keen on taking financial hits when they don’t win cases. Generally speaking, the point of the No Win, No Fee is that your lawyers will only take your case on if they think they have a good enough chance of winning it. Most lawyers simply ask themselves the question – is your case worth taking the risk of it on?

If we didn’t think we could win your case, we wouldn’t take it on; it’s as simple as that. However, like I said earlier, there are some lawyers with clauses in their agreements that could leave you responsible for paying insurance fees, or having to enter in to loan agreements. My advice here is simple – avoid them at all costs!

Make sure that the agreement you sign up to does exactly what it says on the tin – if you lose the case, you pay nothing whatsoever.

What Happens if You WIN

This is the less obvious part; No Win, No Fee doesn’t actually let you know what happens if you win the case. Again, most lawyers use the standard wording of the agreement. For the majority of cases, if your claim is successful you will be entitled to recover your reasonable legal fees from your opponent as well as your compensation. So, as well as getting your compensation from the other side, the fees necessary for your lawyers to get you your compensation are also covered. It wouldn’t be fair if you had to pay a huge solicitor fee leaving you undercompensated and potentially out of pocket.

Most lawyers using the standard wording have a duty to try, endeavour, or perhaps only seek to recover these legal fees from the other side. If you take this literally, your lawyer just has to “have a go” at trying to get the legal fees back from the other side. Anything they can’t get back they can simply charge to you. In reality, many reputable firms wouldn’t use this power they have to charge you; but the fact remains that they still could charge you.

That’s where we come…

We operate a Genuine No Win, No Fee agreement. Our agreement is unique – we add an extra part in ours to say that we will restrict our legal fees to the amount we recover from the other side. This means that we cannot charge you any legal fees over and above those fees we recover from your opponent.

In theory, they could pay us nothing more than a penny, and we couldn’t physically charge you!

So, whilst most other law firms could charge you, we CANT charge you. Our unique agreement stops us from charging you. It makes sense to us – we don’t want to charge you, so we figured we might as well put it in our agreement to say that we can’t. That way you don’t just have to take our word for it – it’s backed up in the agreement.

For more info on our unique and Genuine No Win, No Fee agreement, call our friendly and efficient team on 0800 634 75 75 today.