Can you afford to sue?

It is often said that the only winners in litigation are the lawyers!  A new funding approach may help.

It is true that resolving disputes can cost a lot in legal fees but to resolve a dispute or obtain justice incurring these costs is sometimes inevitable.  But what happens to the search for justice when people can’t afford these costs?  Is there an alternative? 

For many years it has been possible to enter into what are known as conditional fee or no-win no-fee agreements.  The advantage of these is that if you were unsuccessful you didn’t have to pay and if you were successful your solicitor’s costs, plus a success fee, would be recovered from the other party. 

However on 1 April this year things changed.  Conditional fee agreements are still available but the success fee must now be paid from your own damages if you win the case. 

Alternatively, you could elect to use a damages based agreement, where you pay your lawyer a percentage of what is recovered.  However there are quite a few problems with this funding.

A further alternative is third party funding, where a third party funds your litigation, in return for which they receive part of what you are awarded.  The percentage varies according to the type of third party funding used. 

If your claim is unsuccessful the third party funder will, usually with the use of insurance, pay the other party’s costs and won’t seek to recover those costs from you.  If your claim succeeds, the costs of the third party funder will be paid back to them.  They will also be entitled to a fee for providing funding.  You will have to give up part of what has been awarded to you but it could allow you to make a claim when otherwise you may not have been able to do so. 

If you have been considering taking legal action but have always worried about the costs of your claim, this may be an option.  Third party funding is available to businesses as well as to individuals.