private funding

• private funding can be a daunting option as it can be hard to estimate the final cost of a case particularly as the loser pays the winners costs
• solicitors fees can be very expensive with many firms charging upwards for £100 per hour and city firms charging many times this amount

  Alternatively members of the public can contact her barrister directly under the public access scheme which could be cheaper due to the lower overhead incurred by barristers but may require the client to file their own court documents
• conditional fee agreements

  One solution is for client to take out a conditional fee agreement or CFA. These are available in all civil cases except family cases but not in criminal cases.
• CFAs work by the solicitor and client agreeing that fee that would normally be charged for such a a success fee if the case is won
• Conditional fee agreements

  usually the agreement is that if the case is lost no fee is to be paid. This is known as a “no win no fee“ agreement. Success fees are usually kept at 25% of the damages that the client wins.
• as the loser cannot be required to pay the winner success fee the claimant ends up having to pay it out of their damages
• advantages of Conditional Fee Arrangements

  • cFA’s are helpful as they have enabled thousands of people to fund their cases and gain access to justice
  • clients on a CFA will be confident of their solicitors’s commitment to the case and hopeless cases will not be taken on which saves court time
• disadvantages of CFAs

  • some client may not be able to afford the insurance premiums required as these cannot now be claimed back from the other side
  • there is also a concern that some clients may not understand the risk and liabilities of CFA‘s and may end up with “zero gain“ at the end of their case
  • further solicitors on a CFA do not want to take on high risk cases or value claims which can deny access to justice for those concerned
• claimants can also take out what is known as “ after the event” insurance in case they lose and have to pay the other side legal costs the premium for this cannot be reclaimed from the other side following LASPO 2012 it is also possible to ensure solely against the risk of incurring legal costs. This is also known as “ before the event” insurance many insurance policies for legal vehicles or home will provide for an increased cost legal cover