At present everyone you, your family, your friends and your business can have the benefit of funding a professional negligence claim:-
On the basis of a conditional fee (or ‘no win no fee’) agreement such that the “success fee” is recoverable from the losing opponent and:-
After the event insurance (‘ATE’) against the costs of losing the case on the basis that “the premium” is recoverable against the losing opponent.
If part 2 of the government’s proposed Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill is passed the recovery of success fees and ATE premiums from the losing opponent will be abolished. This may mean that cases which are viable at the moment may not be so in future
The bill which could be in force as early as April 2012 is not intended to be retrospective so if you think you do have a professional negligence claim which you wish to have considered for funding on a CFA / ATE basis the message is act now in case it is too late.
Although Hart Brown and many others have been lobbying against the changes if the law comes into effect as currently drafted many people will lose the ability to pursue claims because they will need to pay their own success fees and ATE premium which could add up to more than the damages recovered even if the case succeeds.
A lot of ATE provider’s require a barrister’s opinion before taking on a case and obviously it takes a certain amount of time to gather together evidence in support of the claim and then obtain that opinion.
For some people the clear message is ‘act now before it is too late’.
