Understandably, people are concerned about approaching solicitors due to the significant legal costs involved in pursuing or defending a claim. There is no need to be concerned, as here at W. Davies we will provide you with an initial consultation free of charge. We will also explain your funding options:

Conditional Fee Agreements
Conditional Fee Agreements (“CFA’s”) are often termed "No-Win, No-Fee". This is a regulated agreement between a solicitor and their client as permitted by English law, but not strictly a pure ‘contingency fee’ agreement as found in the USA; such agreements are not lawful in England and Wales.

Subject to the terms of the CFA we will deal with your personal injury case on the understanding that if you lose the case, you will not have to pay your own legal costs. You will, however, still be responsible for any costs incurred by the other side. This risk is insurable by way of ‘After–the–Event’ (“ATE”) Insurance. We always recommend this insurance be taken out if liability is in issue.

If you win your case you usually become responsible for your costs under the agreement together with success fee to reflect the risk taken and delay in receipt of payment. We will, of course, endeavour to recover payment of as much as possible from the other side. Each CFA is negotiated on its own merits.

Private funding
This requires you to pay our invoices on an interim basis until your claim concludes. You may discuss with us preferred intervals for payment of invoices but this will ultimately be at our discretion. If you win your case, the other party will usually be ordered to pay your costs. If there is a difference in the costs that we are able to recover from the other party and the costs we have incurred, you will be responsible to pay any shortfall. If you lose the case, you will probably be ordered to pay the other side's costs as well as your own. However, ‘After–the–Event’ (“ATE”) Insurance policies are available to insure you against any adverse costs order. Please see below for further details.

Legal expenses insurance
You may have legal expenses insurance as part of your household and contents insurance or as a separate insurance policy. You need to consider your policy documents to see whether you have such funding. We may still be able to act for you under the terms of that insurance, with the insurers’ agreement.

After – the – Event (“ATE”) Insurance
This is insurance which can be obtained after an accident has happened. The premiums can be quite high but they are often deferred until the conclusion of the case and are self insured in any event. It simply protects you against any adverse costs order for losing at Trial.

For more information about this please contact Andrew Cohen on aec@wadvies.com or Caroline Bird on cab@wdavies.com