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Funding your claim
There are various ways of funding a Medical Negligence claim. Your legal advisor will discuss the various options with you.
Our Panel Members are able to offer any of the following funding options:
Public Funding (formerly Legal Aid)
Nowadays it is difficult to obtain Public Funding for a Medical Negligence claim. Your legal advisor will assess your eligibility. You must be financially eligible before you can obtain Public Funding. In addition, usually, your claim must also be worth in excess of £10,000.00 (ten thousand). Once your financial eligibility has been assessed your claim must also meet a costs benefit test. I.e. the costs of bringing a claim must not substantially outweigh the benefit of bringing the claim.
Please see our Legal Aid Funding page for more information.
Conditional Fee Agreements (“No Win No Fee“)
A No Win No Fee Agreement (CFA) may be the best method of funding your claim if you are not eligible for Public Funding. You may be asked by your legal advisor to pay the costs of any disbursements (medical records fees and Experts’ fees). You will not have to pay your legal advisor’s fees unless you act unreasonably. You should discuss with your legal advisors the circumstances in which you may be asked to pay. No Win No Fee agreements only cover your legal advisor’s costs and not those of the Defendant. Your legal advisor will advise you as to whether an insurance policy (known as ATE insurance) should be taken out to cover the Defendant’s costs should you lose your case.
Please see our No Win No Fee page for more information.
Private Funding
This is the traditional method of funding a legal claim. Given the extremely high costs of Medical Negligence claims it may not be appropriate. However, your legal advisor may ask you to pay on a private basis in the first instance until the prospects of success are clear.
Legal Expenses Insurance
Some insurance policies also provide for legal expenses. They very rarely cover Medical Negligence claims but your advisor will be under a duty to satisfy themselves that you are not covered before they can consider any alternative methods of funding. You will be asked to provide copies of any insurance policies that you have which were in existence at the time of the alleged negligence.
