No win no fee, help with court fees form help

[jaynus]

I was injured in a rta and have started a no win no fee claim against the driver. The no win no fee company have sent me a help with court fees form. I explained to the company that I won’t get any financial help due to not fitting the criteria. They told me to fill it in anyway and if I win my case, they would claim their court fee back from the court (if I was eligible for help,) or from the other side if not.

ive been looking on the company’s website and it says that if I’m not eligible for help with court fees then they take it out of money awarded to me, assuming I win my case. I also have seen online where people have been left with huge expenses to pay where court fees are higher than the amount they were awarded in compensation.

this form asks for your income amount, household income amount, how much you have in savings etc. My income is very low at less than £100 a month but I recently inherited some money which puts me over the limit for any help with court fees or any other benefits too.

I feel vulnerable in disclosing this as it feels like they’ll see it as knowing that I have x amount of money available to pay out. At the end of the form the declaration says ‘I believe that my financial circumstances mean I’m entitled to help with fees’ and I have to sign a declaration of truth, but that’s not true as I’ve already told them that I’m not entitled to help with fees. They say I need to sign this form even though it doesn’t apply to me. Can anyone help?

Have you contacted them direct ? My insurance company put me in touch with their legal team when I was in a RTA

Contacted who direct? It’s one of those no win no fee companies that advertise. They are telling me to fill in the form.

Your insurance company - there is usually no need to go to a no win no fee place. Your insurance company can appoint a solicitor on your behalf

I was appointed a solicitor through my insurance company, they take 25% but I think that's standard now for no win no fee

You should have a max that they can take, so like 25% as a previous poster mentioned. Then they can never take more than you are awarded. What's in your agreement?
From their end they want to be sure you can't get help with fees as it benefits both you and them if this can be paid. I remember filling in a form to check even though I suspected my income was too high. It felt like a formality.
It sounds like you don't trust your lawyers if you think they'll behave differently when they know your financial situation? Would a different firm be better for you

Don't go no win no fee, go via your insurer.

You have to complete the Help with Fees. If you are successful, the defendant will pay your court fees. However, if it transpires you were entitled to fee remission, the defendant can refuse to pay the fee leaving it to be deducted from any damages you are awarded.

Regardless of whether you think you are or are not entitled to a remission, you need to return the form

It's 25% of the legal costs rather than settlement amount . For minor RTAs the costs are capped so it ends up being very little altogether.

Oh op yoire being screwed.

ok so here is what it is, their costs need paying. If you are not eligible for help and what you win does not cover their costs you pay.

it Is if you don’t win there is no fee. If you win there is a fee and it needs paying. So say you win a hundred pounds, you are not allocated costs. And there costs are 5000 then you owe them 4900. On top of this you owe them a percentage of the winnings as a fee. So 25%. So you pay 25% (or whatever it is) as a fee and then their costs need to be paid. If costs are not allocated by the court then it’s you to pay.

No it’s not.

op can you post an image of what you’re being asked to sign, both contractually and the form?

it's 25% of the settlement.

As a fee not as costs, common sense says it can’t be 25% to cover costs or they’d be working for free most of the time.

Thanks for the replies. My insurer wasn’t informed as the other sides insurer got in touch and dealt with everything. The company I’ve gone with have been useless so far and left me waiting for 18 months at one stage despite me contacting them, I got a response saying they were waiting for the other side to do this or that.

Turns out the man dealing with my case had left the company and it just got shelved! Now unfortunately it’s 3 years since the accident so my time has run out to go elsewhere.

coffeetable, that’s what I suspect and am worried about. I’ll post the form in a min

No, the success fee is capped at 25% of your settlement but the actual amount the success fee will be is determined by the costs of the case.

www.arccosts.co.uk/our-blog/success-fee-personal-injury-claims/

You'll see from these costs draftsmen that it's based on costs and actually can be as much as 100%, however, it's capped at 25% of your damages. A success fee of 100% is more typical in clinical negligence cases which are more difficult to win and therefore riskier (though they pay better).

If you get a million pounds but the legal fees were 100k, they'd take x% of 100k as a success fee, not 250k.

Oh OP you really should have gone to your insurer. If the other side settles before court then the nwnf company will come after you for their costs. Which will be huge.

Are you sure it's too late to disinstruct and go to your own insurer's solicitor? The claim has already started so surely the clock doesn't get reset just because you've changed solicitors.

Have they asked you to sign an EX160A? This a court form which is your income/savings are too low so you don't have to pay court fees.

If you have savings that take you over threshold for your case (and you should check how much they are saying claim is worth versus savings, because it varies) then you need to go back to then and explain you can't sign statement of truth on EX160A as you know you are over the threshold.

Lots of people are talking about CFAs. This is how your case will be funded. That is not determined by income. Most people use CFAs in this country to litigate their personal injury claims.

I should add depending on your funding arrangement/CFA if this is about court fees, and you are over the threshold for a fee exemption, you may be asked to fund the court fees yourself and then claim back from other side (it will depend on your funding arrangements).

These are the forms, I’ve missed 1 page out as I can only include 5 on here.

ive already returned the claim form and signed as I was told that one was urgent

Also this was the reply when I asked about why I needed to fill in the help with fees form as I won’t get help

The Blue One is the claim form. That will be urgent because if the accident is 3 years ago they will not want the Defendant raising limitation arguments.

The other documents are an EX160A - fee exemption. As I said above check the website carefully. If you are over the threshold you can't claim.

They may ask you to pay the court fee (and claim back from D) which for issuing is £455 (there will be other fees listing and hearing fee).

Surely you had to inform your insurer of the accident, if it was not your fault they would have pursued the claim on your behalf. You will have to declare the accident when you renew your insurance.

No I didn’t inform my insurer as the other side insurer called me and arranged hire car etc. When my insurance ran out I re insured with a different insurer.

bluebell, I am over the threshold and I told them so, but they insist I still need to fill in the form.

That's not how fees following settlement works 🤦🏻‍♀️

You have to inform your insurer of any accident? And then declare in any future insurance, you are declaring aren't you? Or your insurance will be invalid if found out!