If you are thinking about pursuing a birth injury claim, you may be worried about the costs involved. Here we explore whether or not you have to pay for medical negligence claims and the type of fees you might face.
Claiming for a birth injury
If you have been the victim of medical negligence, you are legally entitled to pursue a medical negligence claim for compensation. In relation to birth injuries, a claim might arise if a patient suffers:
- A missed/unrepaired perineal tear
- A blunt or negligent episiotomy
- A negligently repaired third or fourth degree tear
- A negligently performed C-section
Funding a medical negligence claim
If you are eligible to make a claim and you would like to proceed with litigation, you must decide upon the most suitable funding option.
A very small number of claims will be funded privately, meaning the individual in question meets any costs involved.
Others will be funded through legal expenses insurance, which is often tacked on to insurance policies (such as household contents insurance).
The majority of claims, however, are funded via a conditional fee agreement (CFA), also known as a no win no fee agreement.
The costs involved
If you do enter into a CFA with your solicitor, you will not have to pay anything if you lose your claim.
When a claim is unsuccessful, your solicitor will not be able to recover their fees. Your solicitor will have insured the claim with an after the event insurance company at the outset, and this insurance company will cover any other costs that have been incurred. So if you do not win your case, you do not pay anything.
If your claim is successful, the other side (i.e. the Defendant) will pay for any costs that have been incurred. Your solicitor is entitled to recover a success fee, and in the past this was also paid by the other side. However, legislation introduced in April 2013 means that solicitors must now recover their success fee from the Claimant’s compensation settlement. This is capped at 25% of your general damages and past losses.
So if you win your claim, your compensation settlement could be reduced by 25%. Other costs will be paid for by the other side.
Can I speak to a solicitor?
If you would like to talk about the cost of a medical negligence claim, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us today. One of our solicitors will be more than happy to answer any questions you have.
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