Funding a Clinical Negligence Claim

How do I fund my clinical negligence claim?

Essentially, you have five options:

  1. Legal Expenses Insurance

    We start by asking whether your claim might be covered by your existing personal insurance policies. Your car or household policy may already include suitable legal expenses cover to fund your claim. You might not even be aware that you have it. Before we can consider the other funding options we have to see whether or not you had cover in place:

    • At the time your claim arose, or
    • When you first became aware you had a potential claim

    We are often instructed to act for Claimants with the benefit of Legal Expenses Insurance because we are already on many insurers' 'panels'. We will ask you for copies of your policy documents to check if your claim is covered.

  2. Trade Union Funding

    If you are a member of a Trade Union it is possible that they may fund your claim for clinical negligence.

  3. Public Funding (commonly known as Legal Aid)

    If (1) or (2) above do not apply, you may be eligible for a Certificate of Public Funding. There are three requirements. First, you must be financially eligible. For this there are income and capital limits. For example you must have a gross income of £2530.00 per month or less and have less than £100,000 of equity in your house. If your income or capital exceeds certain limits you will not be eligible for this type of funding. Please see www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk which is the Legal Services Commission's useful eligibility calculator. Secondly, your case must be worth spending public money on. If you claim is of a small value then the Legal Services Commission are unlikely to fund it. Thirdly, the value of your claim must meet a certain costs benefit ratio. This means that the costs of bringing your claim must be proportionate to its value.

  4. Private Funding

    If no one else will fund your claim then you might want to fund it yourself by paying our hourly rate and all your disbursements (fees that have to be paid to other people on your behalf) as the case progresses. If you require further details we would be happy to discuss them with you.

  5. "No Win, No Fee" Agreement

    This form of funding is offered at the discretion of the partners of Michelmores LLP. We have to be satisfied there are merits in your claim before we can consider acting for you on a "no win, no fee" basis, because we would not be paid if your claim is not successful. You are responsible for paying certain disbursements, such as fees for Court applications, medical records and experts during the course of your case. However Michelmores LLP may be able to offer a disbursement funding facility to cover these. We can discuss this at the appropriate time. We would not incur any expenses on your behalf without (a) your authority and (b) letting you know how much these are likely to be.

    If you are successful the normal litigation rule is that the winner gets most of his costs paid by the loser. If you are the loser this could place your own personal assets at risk so the way that we protect clients against this risk is by applying for special insurance called "After-The-Event Legal Expenses Insurance". These insurers will have to be satisfied that there is merit in your claim in order to offer insurance. This will depend largely upon supportive evidence in your favour from an expert witness. Usually the premiums for this insurance are deferred until the end of the case. If you are successful, then the insurance premium is usually recoverable from the Defendant. If you lose your case then the premium is usually 'self insured' and you will not have to pay it.

    Why do Michelmores LLP offer "no win, no fee" agreements? If we win your claim then we are entitled to charge a success fee of up to 100% of our basic hourly rate reflecting the risk and difficulty associated with your claim. For instance if our basic hourly rate were £100 an hour then we would be able to charge up to £200 an hour. If we win your case then we claim our base costs, the After-the-Event legal insurance premium and our success fee from the Defendant in addition to the damages payable to you. Our "no win no fee" agreement is in the standard form issued by the Law Society.

    Please contact any member of Michelmores' Clinical Negligence team on 01392 688688 to discuss funding your claim.