How much will it cost to claim?
Our basic aim
We try to deal with your personal injury claim for you in a way that will either end up costing you nothing at all or very little.
This is the case whether we are able to settle your claim by negotiation or have to raise a court action for you.
We need to get quite a lot of information from you at the start so we can work out whether your claim is likely to be successful.
We will never charge for getting this information from you and assessing the claim because it is only by doing this that we can decide whether we can help you at all.
Our two main methods of funding personal injury claims
We deal with your personal injury claim either on a “no win – no fee” arrangement or with the benefit of legal aid, if you qualify financially.
How “no win – no fee” works
In a “no win – no fee” situation, there is sometimes a charge to you at the end of the case if it is successful. If the claim fails, however, there is no charge at all.
The cost to you is for the premium of an insurance policy we take out to guard against the risk of the claim failing. The policy premium is about £200 – £400 depending on the type of accident.
The premium is only payable if the claim is successful; if the claim fails, it is not payable at all.
From experience, in most successful cases where the premium is payable, this represents less than 10% of the compensation awarded and certainly less than 20%.
In cases where you either live in Moray or you had your accident in Moray (or both), we operate a system whereby most clients receive 100% of their compensation without any deductions at all.
How legal aid works
In a legally-aided case, if your claim is successful, you will always receive 100% of your damages, without any deduction.
A number of factors are important in deciding whether your case is best handled “no win – no fee” or under legal aid and we will discuss these with you so that you make the choice which works best for you.
The claims process
If we consider that someone else is to blame or at least partly to blame for your injuries, we will write to them or their insurers to intimate your claim
The insurers will then carry out investigations and, if they accept their insured was at fault, they will offer to pay you compensation. Note that they will only pay for injuries or loss you sustained as a result of the accident. We will negotiate with the insurers and it is normally possible in these situations to negotiate settlement of your claim without the need for a court action.
If the insurers or the third party do not accept there has been any breach of duty, it will generally only be possible to proceed further with your claim by raising a court action, which we will always do if appropriate – but only after discussion with you.
Our aim is to be approachable and friendly and to make sure you understand all stages of the process fully.
Contact us for help
For further information and a free initial chat, without any obligation to take matters further, get in touch with us. You can contact Peter Brash or Marie Morrison on 01343 544077. Another way to get in touch is to complete and send us a free, no-obligation Online Enquiry by clicking HERE.
Note that there is more information about the above matters on our Moray Claims website.