Gardner Leader

Case Funding

In most cases we are happy to offer an initial free consultation to assess the likely prospects of any claim.

We will advise you of the options available to fund your claim including: -

Legal Expenses Insurance (Also known as before the event insurance): -

You may have legal expenses cover for yourself and your family on your household insurance, on your car insurance on your credit card or in some other way. This may cover general legal claims or be specific to a particular sort of claim e.g. road traffic accidents on your car insurance. We will ask you to check any policies you have and to bring them with you to your first interview.

Conditional Fee Agreements (No Win No Fee)

We offer Conditional Fee Agreements (CFA) to clients in suitable cases. It will often be necessary to complete a preliminary investigation into the merits of your claim before we can decide on whether a CFA is appropriate. If we are able to assess the merits of a claim at the outset we will consider a CFA following our initial meeting.

If you do not win your case the firm will receive no costs. Under a CFA, if you win your case, we are entitled to charge an enhanced fee on our normal hourly rate known as a success fee. The success fee is designed to reflect the risk for us of not being paid.

The CFA only covers our costs. In investigating your claim you will entail additional expenses known as disbursements, including the cost of obtaining medical records, experts’ fees and court fees. We maintain a flexible approach regarding the funding of disbursements and will always take time to establish the most appropriate funding method for each individual client.

If you win your case, it is likely that the Defendant will be liable to pay your reasonable legal costs, including disbursements and the success fee.

If you lose your case following the issue of court proceedings you will not have to pay our costs, but you will be potentially liable for the Defendant’s costs and your disbursements. We will advise you to take out “after the event” (ATE) insurance to protect you from this eventuality.

Private Funding

We can act for you on a private fee-paying basis and will advise you of our hourly rates. We will need to discuss carefully your prospects of succeeding with your claim and the risk that you may be liable for costs and disbursements if you were to lose your claim.

[Back]