The government seems obsessed with whiplash claims, and a lot of it stems from incessant moaning from the insurance industry who appear upset that they have to pay people money who make claims; despite the fact that they exist for that very reason.
Reading my opening statement, you may feel I am somewhat bitter or bias about the negativity that’s associated with whiplash claims. Well to be honest, I am! And with good reason!
So read on for info about how much you may have to pay and more importantly why you have to pay for your whiplash claim.
Changes in the Law
The multi-billion pound insurance industry has a lot of financial and political sway. If you think lawyers are rich, think again – we are nothing in comparison to insurers. This is why they can normally get away with pushing through changes in the law that have ultimately cost victims money.
The government have stopped you from recovering all of your legal fees from the opponent, with the opponent typically being covered by insurers. Fixed fee regimes have been introduced meaning that lawyers cannot provide legal representation on a 100% basis anymore for many cases. The legal fees for most whiplash claims are around £500 which is nothing in comparison to the work we need to do.
You will probably spend more on a conveyance solicitor for a house move!
It means that there are now deductions for the unrecoverable success fee of up to 25% from your claim. A lawyer cannot normally take any more than 25% from your payout to cover the success fee – BUT this does not mean that they cannot charge you other fees.
You can also no longer recover the cost of insurance you may need for a claim as well.
So how much do I typically pay?
Many law firms will at charge at least:
- 25% from your payout for the success fee
- Anywhere between a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for the insurance
The insurance can be anyone’s guess really. It could be £150; £450; or even £5,000. It often depends on the risk of the case. In some high value cases premiums can be tens of thousands of pounds.
But on top of that many lawyers also have additional fees because they can only recover fixed fees as well. Some may:
- Charge additional upfront costs or fixed costs in the region of £300 to £500
- Charge additional percentages to cover other fees, leaving overall total percentages of up to 50%
So how do I save money and pay less?
The big question – firstly understand that it isn’t the fault of law firms that there are now these charges in place. We don’t like them, and we don’t agree with them, but we cannot work for free.
At The Injury Lawyers offer our clients bespoke agreements where you will never be subject to anything more than what is agreed at the start. With us:
- You do not have to pay the maximum 25% for the success fee
- You do not have to pay for insurance in the vast majority of cases
- There are no upfront or additional fixed costs for you to pay under the terms of our usual no win, no fee arrangement
- You do not have to pay additional percentages like those referenced above
As a firm we can do this because we take on and win a lot of claims and because we are a specialist injury law firm which means we are efficient and we are experts in our field. We can’t change the law – but we can do our best to save you money by making sure you pay less.
For help call 0800 634 7575 today.
