Funding of Legal Costs
We recognise that the prospect of spending money on legal advice and perhaps Court action can be an intimidating one for clients.
Solicitors charge for the work they do for their clients according to the time they spend. All the lawyers at Russell Jones & Walker have an hourly rate calculated on the basis of their specialist skills and experience.
When you approach us for advice, we will provide you with a letter setting out our terms of business and showing the hourly rates charged by each of the lawyers who may deal with your case.
We will also try and estimate how much time we will need to devote to advising on your legal problem so that you can budget for your legal fees.
If you are pursuing or defending a complicated claim, then we will revise our costs estimates as the case progresses.
Legal aid (or legal assistance, as it is now called) has never been available for defamation matters. This means you will be personally responsible for the legal fees which you incur with us for the work we do on your behalf.
However, there are 3 very important points about legal costs and funding which anyone who requires legal advice should know about:-
1. “No win, no fee”
If you are pursuing or defending a claim and the merits and prospects of success of your case are sufficiently good, then we may offer to act for you under what is called a “conditional fee agreement” (CFA). This is popularly known as a “no win, no fee” arrangement.
It means that you will not be liable for the solicitor’s costs you incur with Russell Jones & Walker whether you win or lose your case.
However, it is important to be aware that if you lose a Court action, even if we are acting under a CFA, you will almost certainly be ordered to pay your opponent’s legal costs.
You will also remain liable for such items as Court fees and barrister’s costs (unless the barrister we instruct also agrees to act for you under a CFA).
2. Costs of a Court action
If you are pursuing or defending a Court action, then when it is decided, the Court will usually order that the unsuccessful party pays the successful party’s reasonable legal costs.
This means that if you win, you can expect to recover most of your legal costs from your opponent. If we are acting for you under a CFA, then we will only get paid if you win your case and get a costs order in your favour.
However, if you lose your case, you will be liable to pay not only your own legal costs, but also your opponent’s. Once again, if we are acting for you under a CFA, then you would not have to pay the costs you incurred with Russell Jones & Walker if you lose your case, but you would still face the expense of paying the other side’s costs. The financial stakes for contested litigation are, therefore, high.
Our CFA procedure explained
We’ve explained how the CFA or No Win No fee arrangement works already, but how do we decide whether or not to take your case on a CFA?
We look at each individual case on its own merits and weigh up the strengths and weaknesses. We have summarised our approach in stages below to help you understand better.
- Information about your claim
We will obtain information about your claim. Is there any truth in what was said in the publication you have complained about, are there any documents that help your case and equally any which weaken it? Who is your opponent? What is their financial status, ie is there any point claiming against them? When and where was the publication made? We will identify any potential issues such as if you were not named in the publication, in which case we would have to be confident that you had credible witnesses who could identify you.
- Meeting
Three of our defamation team will meet to discuss all of this information and will decide either to accept or reject your case on a CFA if we feel there is a 50% or more chance that your claim would be successful. - Decision
Our decision will be explained to you by the solicitor working on your case and all the forms and documents that we are obliged to complete by law will be explained clearly to you before we both sign the agreement. - Insurance
If we have discussed obtaining insurance against any risks we will submit the proposal form at this stage. - Counsel
If we will be instructing a barrister on your case, we may also enter into a CFA with them. - Updates
Regular reviews will be taken by our internal defamation team as your case progresses.
3. Insurance
It is possible to protect yourself against the risk of paying your opponent’s legal costs by taking out an insurance policy which will be triggered if a costs order is made against you.
The way in which the insurance premiums are calculated and payable on such policies is complicated. Russell Jones & Walker has a good relationship with various insurance providers and can advise you on this important area which could help to mitigate or cap your potential financial exposure in the event that you lose your case.
Call us for more information on 0870 143 0970.
