How to fund a Medical Negligence or Personal Injury claim?

• Conditional Fee Agreements (“no win, no fee”)
• Legal Expenses Cover
• Privately Funding a Claim

Conditional Fee Agreements (“no win, no fee”)

Many cases are funded through “no win, no fee” agreements, known as Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs), which cover our fees for working on your case.  Essentially, this agreement means that if a case is not successful then our fees do not have to be paid.

We help clients to obtain an “After The Event” (ATE) insurance policy to cover other expenses of bringing a claim (such as experts’ fees and Court fees).

In almost all cases, if your claim is not successful, you do not have to pay anything at all.

If your case is successful, we are usually able to recover a large proportion of the costs from the Defendant.  You will probably need to contribute, from your compensation, towards costs which cannot be recovered from the Defendant (examples of these costs are a Success Fee and the ATE insurance premium, or part thereof).

We want you to understand every aspect of your case.  If you wish to fund your case with a Conditional Fee Agreement, we will provide you with detailed information and discuss any queries you may have.

Legal Expenses Cover

If you have legal expenses cover, either as a standalone insurance policy or as part of another insurance policy (such as your household or credit card insurance), you may be able to use it to fund some, or all, of your claim.

You might also have legal expenses cover through your membership of a Trade Union or other organisation.

If you believe that you may have cover for legal expenses, please let us know at the beginning of your case.

Even where an Insurer has its own preferred solicitors, we may still be able to act for you under the policy.

Privately funding a claim

You may wish to consider funding your claim privately, if other funding options are not available to you or you would prefer not to use them.

We will discuss with you the pros and cons of privately funding a claim before we begin work on your case.

Legal Aid Funding

Legal Aid (funding by the State) is not available for personal injury claims or most types of medical negligence claim.  However, Legal Aid is still available for claims on behalf of children who have sustained neurological injury (brain damage) causing severe disability, where the negligence occurred prior to, or in the weeks immediately following, birth.  Historically we held a contract with the Legal Aid Agency to allow us to conduct medical negligence cases on a Legal Aid basis.  However, in August 2024 we decided not to renew our Legal Aid contract for administrative reasons and due to the limits imposed on experts fees.  Notwithstanding this decision, we are able to offer special terms to clients who would be eligible for Legal Aid which essentially match the benefits of Legal Aid and at the same time allow more freedom in the way that cases can be run.

Please note

The above information describes funding options which may be offered by Kingsley Napley LLP.  Not all of these options will be available or appropriate for every case.  We will help you to consider which option is appropriate for you.

If you wish to bring a claim and are uncertain about funding, please contact us.