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Conditional Fee Agreements: What you need to know
Definitions of words used in the document and the accompanying Conditional Fee Agreement are explained at the end of this document
This document forms part of the agreement between us, and you should read it carefully before signing the agreement and ask us about anything you find unclear.
If you win your claim, you pay our basic charges, our disbursements, and a success fee together with any premium for any insurance you have taken out. You can claim from your opponent some of our basic charges and our disbursements. You cannot recover from your opponent the success fee and any premium on any insurance you take out. You will pay the balance of any basic charges and, disbursements that cannot be recovered from your opponent, together with our success fee and any insurance premium out of your compensation, and you are providing us with an irrevocable agreement to pursue your claim for recovery of our charges, expenses and disbursements on your behalf.
In a road traffic accident case the court rules have fixed the sums that you can recover from your opponent where the level of your compensation does not exceed £25,000. The amount you can recover varies depending on whether your claim remains within the scheme governed by the “pre-action protocol for low value claims in road traffic accidents”. Where your claim remains within the scheme the costs that can be recovered from your opponent are fixed as follows:
| Stage when settled | Claims valued £10,000 or below | Claims valued above £10,000 |
| Stage 1 or 2 | £500.00 | £800.00 |
| Stage 3 | Up to an additional £500.00 | Up to an additional £500 |
Claims can drop out of the above scheme for many reasons. Where this happens the amount of costs that can be recovered from your opponent will depend on the value of the settlement and the stage at which the claim settles, as set out in the following table:
| value of claim
£1,000-£5,000
|
value of claim £5,001-£10,000
|
Value of claim
£10,001-£25,000
|
Issued –
Post issue Pre Allocation
|
Issued –
Post allocation pre listing
|
Issued –
Post listing pre trial
|
At Trial –
Advocacy Fee
|
| Case Settles before Issue | Case Settles before Issue | Case Settles before Issue | ||||
| Greater of £550 or £100
+ 20% of Damages |
£1,100
+15% of Damages over £5k |
£1,930
+ 10% of Damages over £10k |
£1,160
+ 20% of Damages |
£1,880
+ 20% of Damages |
£2,655
+ 20% of Damages |
£500 ( up to £3,000)
£710 (£3-10,000) £1,070 (£10-15,000) £1,705 (£15,000+) |
In accidents at work and public liability matters the court rules have fixed the sums that you can recover from your opponent where the level of your compensation does not exceed £25,000. The amount you can recover varies depending on whether your claim remains within the scheme governed by the “pre-action protocol for low value employers’ liability and public liability claims”. Where your claim remains within the scheme the costs that can be recovered from your opponent are fixed as follows:
| Stage when settled | Claims valued £10,000 or below | Claims valued above £10,000 |
| Stage 1 or 2 | £900.00 | £1,300.00 |
| Stage 3 | Up to an additional £500.00 | Up to an additional £500 |
Claims can drop out of the above scheme for many reasons. Where this happens the amount of costs that can be recovered from your opponent will depend on the value of the settlement and the stage at which the claim settles, as set out in the following table:
| Pre issue
£1,000-£5,000
|
Pre Issue £5,001-£10,000
|
Pre Issue £10,001-£25,000
|
Issued –
Post issue Pre Allocation
|
Issued –
Post allocation pre listing
|
Issued –
Post listing pre trial
|
Trial –
Advocacy Fee
|
|
| Case Settles before Issue | Case Settles before Issue | Case Settles before Issue | |||||
| Employers Liability | |||||||
| Fixed Costs | £950
+ 17.5% of Damages |
£1,855
+12.5% of Damages over £5k |
£2,500
+ 10% of Damages over £10k |
£2,630
+ 20% of Damages |
£3,350
+ 25% of Damages |
£4,280
+ 30% of Damages |
£500 (to £3,000)
£710 (£3-10,000) £1,070 (£10-15,000) £1,705 (£15,000+) |
| Public Liability | |||||||
| Fixed Costs
|
£950
+ 17.5% of Damages |
£1,855
+10% of Damages over £5k |
£2.370
+ 10% of Damages over £10k |
£2,450
+ 17.5% of Damages |
£3,065
+ 22.5% of Damages |
£3,790
+ 27.5% of Damages |
£500 (to £3,000)
£710 (£3-10,000) £1,070 (£10-15,000) £1,705 (£15,000+) |
In addition to the above, expenses and disbursements can be recovered from your opponent where reasonably incurred and reasonable in amount. If we and your opponent cannot agree the amount they must pay, the court will decide how much you can recover. We are allowed to keep any interest your opponent pays on our charges.
You agree to pay into a designated account any cheque received by you or by us from your opponent and made payable to you. Out of the money, you agree to let us take the balance of the basic charges; success fee; insurance premium; our remaining disbursements; and VAT. You take the rest.
There is a maximum limit on the amount of the success fee which we can recover from you. That maximum limit is 25% of the total of the amount of any compensation for both your pain and suffering, and your compensation for your losses and expenses excluding any anticipated future losses (“Past Pecuniary Loss”), which are awarded to you in the proceedings covered by this agreement. Also the 25% will be calculated on the relevant compensation net of any sums recoverable by the Compensation Recovery Unit of the Department for Works and Pensions. The 25% limit is also inclusive of VAT.
The Maximum limit also includes any success fee payable to a barrister who has a CFA with us.
Whilst there is no maximum limit in relation to our Basic Charges, to give you certainty as to the maximum amount that you can be charged, we agree with you that we will limit the total amount we will charge you for Basic Charges, success fee, expenses and disbursements to a maximum of 25% of the total compensation you receive after deducting any fees and expenses recovered from your opponent. This does not include any insurance premium for any policy that you choose to take out which has to be paid in addition.
We will provide you with a copy of any relevant judgement or of our calculation of any settlement showing how much of your compensation should be attributed to your pain and suffering and Past Pecuniary Loss net of any sums recoverable by the Compensation Recovery Unit. If you do not agree our calculation and this makes a difference to the amount of the success fee payable by you, then we will put the matter for determination by an independent barrister of at least 10 years call, to be appointment by agreement between us or, in default of agreement, by the President of the Law Society of England and Wales, such barrister to act as expert and not as arbitrator and his decision shall be binding. The barrister’s costs for assessing this issue are to be paid by you if the barrister agrees with us, but otherwise to be paid by us.
It may be that your opponent makes a formal offer to settle which you reject on our advice, and your claim for compensation goes ahead to trial where you recover compensation that is equal to or less than that offer. If this happens, we will not add our success fee to the basic charges for the work completed after we received notice of the offer or payment. You would also be liable for your opponent’s costs should this happen, but only up to the amount of any compensation awarded.
If you win overall but in the meantime lose an interim hearing, you may be required to pay your opponent’s costs of that hearing, but not until the conclusion of the claim (see below). Those costs will then have to be paid out of your compensation in addition to the payment of our fees and expenses referred to above.
If on the way to winning or losing you are awarded any costs, by agreement or court order, then we are entitled to payment of those costs, together with a success fee on those charges if you win overall.
2. What do I pay if I lose?
If you lose you do not have to pay our fees. However, we may require you to reimburse us for our expenses and disbursements. The court may also order you to pay your opponent’s costs. Under new rules introduced from 1 April 2013 your opponent is not allowed to enforce that order against you aside from the following limited circumstances:
a) Where your claim is struck out because the court concludes that you had no reasonable grounds for bringing the proceedings; they are an abuse of the court process; or your conduct is likely to obstruct the just disposal of the proceedings
b) Your opponent persuades a judge that your claim was “fundamentally dishonest”, for instance where you have attempted to pursue a fraudulent claim
Apart from these limited circumstances you cannot be required to pay your opponent’s costs if you lose your claim at trial or should you discontinue your claim at any stage.
In the event that you are found to have been fundamentally dishonest, you will also be required to repay our fees and disbursements incurred.
These are for work done from the date of acceptance of the claim until this agreement ends. These are subject to review on 1 January each year and we will notify you of any change in writing.
These are calculated for each hour engaged on your matter. Routine letters and telephone calls will be charged as units of one tenth of an hour. Other letters and telephone calls will be charged on a time basis, subject to a minimum charge which will be the amount of fixed costs that can be recovered from the defendant as set out in section one above. The hourly rates are:
| Grade of Fee Earner |
Hourly Rate |
| Solicitors, legal executives and other staff with more than eight years’ experience |
£398.00 |
| Solicitors, legal executives and other staff with more than four years’ experience |
£308.00 |
| Solicitors, legal executives and other staff with less than four years’ experience |
£260.00 |
The success fee percentage set out in the agreement reflects the following:
(a) If you lose, we will not be paid
(b) Our assessment of the risks generally in this type of case
(c) Any other appropriate matters
(d) If you win we will not be paid our basic charges until the end of the claim
(e) We will fund any disbursements
You agree that after winning, the reasons for setting the success fee at the amount stated may be disclosed to the court or to any other person required by the court.
We add VAT, at the rate (currently 20%) that applies when the work is completed, to the total of the basic charges and success fee.
If you win your case but do not beat a formal offer to settle, you may have to pay your opponent’s costs from 21 days after the offer was made through to trial. Another circumstance where this would occur is if (as part of the process leading to an eventual trial) we or the defendant made an application to the court about anything concerning your case, and the court ruled in favour of the defendant and (as is normal) then awarded costs against you. In both scenarios your liability will be limited to a maximum sum equivalent to the amount of compensation you are awarded.
You can insure against the above risk (including the risk of any liability identified in paragraph 2 a) above). If you do then you do not have to pay the premium as it is deferred until the end of the claim and is only payable if you win. You must then pay this premium out of your compensation in addition to our fees.
We can obtain a policy from an insurer which we will purchase on your behalf to provide that protection.
We are not insurance brokers. The legal expenses insurance market is complex and changes frequently. Accordingly we do not offer professional advice on all policies available in the market, This insurance policy is suitable for individuals pursuing a legal claim for damages via a solicitor who will incur disbursements on their behalf and/or where there are circumstances where that individual may become liable to pay his/her opponent’s legal costs or disbursements.
We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. However, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority so that we may carry on insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the Financial Services website at www.fca.gov.uk/register/epfSearchForm.do
The Law Society of England and Wales is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints against lawyers. If you are unhappy with any insurance advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.
We only select products from a limited number of insurers for legal expenses insurance policies, but we are not contractually obliged to conduct business in this way. Please ask us for a list of the insurers should you wish to view it.
We must:
You must:
If your opponent fails to pay monies due to you
If your opponent does not pay any damages or charges owed to you, we have the right to take recovery action in your name to enforce a judgement, order or agreement. The charges of this action become part of the basic charges.
The cost of advocacy and any other work by us, or by any solicitor agent on our behalf, forms part of our basic charges. We shall discuss with you the identity of any barrister instructed, and the arrangements made for payment.
Barristers who have a conditional fee agreement with us.
If you win, you are normally entitled to recover their basic fee from your opponent but not their success fee which remains payable by you but subject to the cap referred to above. The barrister’s success fee is shown in the separate conditional fee agreement we make with the barrister. We will discuss the barrister’s success fee with you before we instruct him or her. In any event, this success fee will be within the 25% cap of the damages recovered as set out in section 1 “What do I pay if I win?”. If you lose, you pay the barrister nothing.
Barristers who do not have a conditional fee agreement with us
If you win then you will normally be entitled to recover all or part of their fee from your opponent. If you lose then you must pay their fee.
There are alternative ways in which you could consider funding your claim other than under a Conditional Fee Agreement:
a) Private funding
You could fund the claim privately. We would charge you our basic charges and disbursements only. The same hourly rates would apply as set out in this agreement. We would bill you for all work done on a monthly basis along with any disbursements incurred. At the conclusion of the claim we would seek to recover for you as much of our basic charges and disbursements as possible, although due to the current rules of court it is unlikely that you will be able to recover our fees in full.
b) Before the event Legal Expenses Insurance
It may be that you have legal expenses insurance. If you do you could fund the claim privately as set out above, but you would be entitled to an indemnity from your legal expenses insurer for our fees up to the amount of any cover that you have. We would have to carry out an investigation into the suitability of any such insurance and the level of cover should you wish to consider this, and there would be a one off charge of £250.00 plus VAT for doing so. It is most unlikely that your policy will cover all of our fees in any event, although we would not know for sure unless you ask us to investigate this. Any shortfall would remain your responsibility win or lose.
c) Trade Union funding
If you are a member of a Trade Union and you have had an accident at work sometimes your Union would be able to appoint a solicitor for you, but you are likely to lose your right to choose your own solicitor. You would then have to discuss with those solicitors how they would seek to charge you for their fees and the extent to which you might be entitled to an indemnity from the trade union.
d) Damages Based Agreements
Finally there is the possibility of entering into a Damages Based Agreement. This is a contingency fee where our fees are a percentage of your compensation recovered net of payments received from your opponents. Our fee would be a fixed percentage and is not dependent on the amount of work we do. Unfortunately we do not believe that this arrangement is suitable for this claim and are unable to offer this as an alternative.
We have discussed the above methods of funding with you and understand that you wish to proceed with this conditional fee agreement. If so please sign and return a copy of this document along with the signed conditional fee agreement. Alternatively if you wish to reconsider one of the above methods of funding please contact us for more information.
(a) Paying us if you end this agreement
You can end this agreement at any time. Unless you have a right to cancel this agreement (see section 17 (l) below) and do so within the seven-day time limit we then have the right to decide whether you must:
(b) Paying us if we end this agreement before the end of the case
(i) We can end this agreement if you do not keep to your responsibilities as set out in section 8 above. We then have the right to decide whether you must:
(ii) We can end this agreement if you reject our opinion about making a settlement with your opponent. You must then:
In these circumstances, if your opponent has made a formal offer to settle your claim which you have rejected and the damages you go on to recover are less than that offer, you may be ordered to pay your opponent’s costs but only up to the amount of damages and interest awarded to you.
If you ask to get a second opinion from a specialist solicitor outside our firm, we will do so, but you must pay the cost of the second opinion.
(iii) We can end this agreement for any of the following reasons, and you will not be liable to pay our basic charges or a success fee, although you may be required to pay our expenses and disbursements:
(c) Death
This agreement automatically ends if you die before your claim for damages is concluded. We will be entitled to recover our basic charges up to the date of your death from your estate.
If your personal representatives wish to continue your claim for damages, we may offer them a new conditional fee agreement, as long as they agree to pay the success fee on our basic charges from the beginning of the agreement with you.
After this agreement ends, we may apply to have our name removed from the record of any court proceedings in which we are acting unless you have another form of funding and ask us to work for you.
We have the right to preserve our lien unless another solicitor working for you undertakes to pay us what we are owed including a success fee if you win.
If we cease trading then you must pay us or any successor to our business (or to that part of our business which takes over the conduct of your claim) our basic charges and our expenses and disbursements including barrister’s fees and success fees if you go on to win your claim.
In acting on your behalf we aim to achieve the highest possible levels of service and aim to ensure:
a) The person handling the claim wherever possible will deal with your telephone calls. If that person is unavailable your call will be directed to an assistant or a message will be taken. All requests for return telephone calls shall be dealt with on the same day, or as soon as possible thereafter
b) We will communicate with you in plain language
c) We will inform you of any development by post as soon as possible. You should normally hear from us approximately every three or four weeks
d) In order to ensure that your file is handled promptly and efficiently, it may be necessary for other members of our team to deal with certain aspects of your case from time to time
e) We try hard not to change the people handling a case. If this cannot be avoided we will notify you promptly of any change
f) We will explain to you the issues raised in your case and the legal work required as your matter progresses
g) We will update you on the cost of your matter every six months
There may be certain additional expenses that may be incurred on your behalf. If you win, we will recover these from your opponent’s insurance company who will be paying your compensation.
Examples of some of the expenses, which you are likely to incur in relation to your claim, are as follows:
| EXPENSE | WHEN PAYMENT IS LIKELY TO BE NEEDED | ESTIMATED COSTS |
| Fee for Medical Report | Upon Conclusion | £480.00 |
| Fee for copy medical notes | As above | £100.00 |
| Court Issue Fee (if required) | As above | £250.00 (Subject to value of claim) |
It is difficult at this stage, to give an accurate estimate of the likely level of costs that will be incurred in relation to your matter if the claim is successful as it depends on the time it takes to conclude it on your behalf.
Two of the major factors in determining this, and the likely time scale, will be the manner in which the other party deals with the case and the severity of your injuries, both of which will ultimately have a bearing on how quickly we can resolve matters on your behalf.
On the basis that it is possible to resolve matters without protracted negotiations, court proceedings or unforeseen circumstances, then we would estimate that the total basic costs (including disbursements) in dealing with your matter will be in the region of approximately £8,000.00 to £10,000.00. This estimate is not intended to be fixed. We will update this estimate at least every six months and inform you if it appears that any estimate may be exceeded.
a) Funds held on your behalf
Any funds, which we receive on your behalf, will be held in our client account and, in accordance with professional regulations, will attract non-compound or simple interest. To help us cover the expense involved in calculating and paying interest and preparing Inland Revenue returns, we do not account to clients for the first £20 of accrued interest.
b) Interest on costs
Where you are successful and the other party is ordered to pay some or all of your legal charges and expenses, we may be able to claim interest on those sums from the date of the Court Order. Where a Court Order is made which entitles us to claim interest on charges and expenses we will retain that interest.
c) Storage of documents
After completing the work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents whilst there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. We will keep our file of papers (except for any of your papers which you ask to be returned to you) for no less than six years. We keep the file on the understanding that we have your authority to destroy it six years after the date of the final bill we send you for this matter. We will not destroy documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody.
If we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your affairs, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However, we may make an administration charge of £25.00 to retrieve stored papers or documents to you or another at your request. We may also make an additional charge for reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with the instructions given by you on your behalf.
d) Conflict of interest
We always check conflicts of interest between clients. A conflict may arise, for example, if your opponent is or has been our client. If so, we may not be able to act for you. If you are aware of any circumstances where you believe there may be such a conflict, please tell us without delay.
e) Confidentiality
Confidential information about you or your case must not be revealed by anyone at this firm to other people. However, as your legal expenses insurers pay for us to deal with your case we may be obliged to reveal details of your case to them from time to time. They may have the right to call for and inspect your file, to check quality standards. It may also be necessary to allow files to be inspected for audit purposes or to comply with regulatory requirements. By signing this document you are agreeing to the release of details of your case to your legal expenses insurers.
f) Termination
You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time in accordance with the Conditional Fee Agreement, but we will be entitled to keep all of your papers and documents whilst there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses.
We must give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you.
g) Complaints
NV Legal Limited is committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received, please contact Nick Davis, Director on 03330 112 732, email ndavis@nvlegal.co.uk or by post to our office. If the complaint is about Nick Davis, the matter may need to be raised with the Legal Ombudsman, however please contact us in the first instance to allow us to attempt to resolve matters.
We have a procedure in place which details with how we handle complaints which is available upon request. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.
This can include a complaint about this firm’s bill. You may also have the right to object to the bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. If all or part of the bill remains unpaid the firm may be entitled to charge interest.
If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman (details set out below) to consider the complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within a year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring or you becoming aware of it.
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 8606
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Telephone : 0300 555 0333
Email : enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website : www.legalombudsman.org.uk
h) Outsourcing of work
Sometimes we ask other companies or people to complete work on our files to ensure this is done promptly. This includes arranging medical examinations and arranging for the signing of documents. We will always seek a confidentiality agreement with these outsourced providers. If you do not want you file outsourced, please tell us as soon as possible.
i) Auditing and vetting files
External firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice which will involve them checking files which might include yours. These external firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.
By signing these terms you are consenting to such an audit. If at any time you wish to object to such an audit you must tell us. We will assume you have no objection to your file being reviewed unless you tell us otherwise.
j) Data protection
We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:
Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act of 1998 and our duty of confidentiality. Our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.
We may from time to time send you information that we think might be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information please notify our office in writing.
k) Client due diligence and making a disclosure
The law requires solicitors to obtain satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients and sometimes people related to them. This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their client can be used by criminals wanting to launder money. To comply with the law, we need to obtain evidence of your identity as soon as possible. Our practice is to request a copy of photo identification. If you cannot provide is with the specific identification requested, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss other ways to verify your identity.
We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, solicitors may be required by statute to make a disclosure to the Serious Organised Crime Agency where they know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing. If we do not make a disclosure in relation to your matter, we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made. We may have to stop working on your matter for a period of time and may not be able to tell you why.
l) Notice of your right to cancel
Under The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 you have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without providing any reason.
The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.
To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail).
You may use the attached cancellation form, but it is not obligatory.
To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.
Effects of cancellation
If you cancel this contract, we will reimburse to you any payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).
We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.
We will make the reimbursement without undue delay 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel this contract.
If you requested to begin the performance of services during the cancellation period, you shall pay us an amount which is in proportion to what has been performed until you have communicated us your cancellation from this contract, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.
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m) Professional Indemnity Insurance / Limiting Liability
We have a legal duty to tell you about our Professional Indemnity Insurance. We have an obligation to carry such insurance and our qualifying insurers are W R Berkley Insurance (Europe) Limited), 2nd Floor, 40 Lime Street, London EC3M 7AW.
Our insurance policy number is. The insurance covers our practice carried on from our offices in England and Wales and will extend to acts or omissions wherever in the world they occur. The limitation of our liability is £3,000,000 for any one claim for advice given under English Law.
Our liability to you for a breach of your instructions shall therefore be limited in line with our Professional Indemnity Insurance. We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profits or opportunities. We can only limit our liability to the extent the law allows. In particular, we cannot limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.
n) Equality and diversity
Consistent with our internal policies and procedures, we will not discriminate in the way we provide our services on the grounds of race, colour, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability or marital status.
If during the course of the matter upon which we are advising you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, as we are not. However, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, we may be able to provide certain limited investment services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are completing for you.
If you have any problem with the services we have provided for you, then please let us know. We will try to resolve any problem between ourselves. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman.
The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the Legal Ombudsman is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society. See clause h for the contact details of the Legal Ombudsman.
p) Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
In the event of a banking failure it is unlikely that the firm would be held liable for any losses of client account money. If a corporate body client is not considered a small company by FSCS, then they will not be eligible for compensation.
We currently hold our client account funds in National Westminster Bank Plc. The £85,000 Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) limit will apply to each individual client so if you hold other personal monies yourself in the same bank as our client account, the limit remains £85,000 in total, so it may be advisable to check with your own bank as some banks now trade under different trading names. In the event of a bank failure you agree to us disclosing details to the FSCS.
We are required to provide you our initial assessment of any unusual level of risk for you. At present we do not believe that there is any unusual level of uncertainty about this matter to draw your attention, but should that assessment change we will notify you immediately.
Our office hours are 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.
You may contact us by any of the methods set out on our letterhead. Please note a standard email will be dealt with as any other incoming piece of post to ensure fairness to client’s without an email facility.
We will provide you with a detailed guidance note at the beginning of your claim and additional useful information is available on our website at www.nvlegal.co.uk.
a) Advocacy – Appearing for you at court hearings
b) Basic charges – Our charges for the legal work we do on your claim for compensation as set out in section 3 above.
c) Claim – Your demand for compensation for personal injury whether or not court proceedings are issued.
d) Counterclaim – A claim your opponent makes against you in response to your claim.
e) Damages – Money that you win whether by a court decision or settlement.
f) Our disbursements- Payments we make on your behalf such as:
g) Interim damages – money that a court says your opponent must pay or your opponent agrees to pay while waiting for settlement or the court’s final decision.
h) Interim hearing – A court hearing that is not final
i) Lien – Our right to keep all papers, documents, money or other property held on your behalf until all money due to us is paid. A lieu may be applied after this agreement ends
j) Lose – The court has dismissed your claim or you have stopped it on our advice
k) Formal offer to settle– An offer to settle your claim regardless as to whether it is made in accordance with Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules or not
l) Provisional damages – Money that a court says your opponent must pay or your opponent agrees to pay, on the basis you will be able to go back to court at a future date for further damages if:
m) Success fee – The percentage of basic charges that we add to your bill if you win your claim for damages.
n) Trial – The final contested hearing or the contested hearing of any issue to be tried separately and a reference to a claim concluding at trial. Includes a claim settled after trial has commenced or a judgement
p) ‘Finally’ means that your opponent;