Road Traffic Accident Claim Costs

The likely outlay for a road traffic claim

It is important to know what legal costs are involved in a compensation claim, what insurance policies you have, how 'no win no fee' agreements work, and other ways of funding your claim.

Legal costs are divided into your solicitor's fees and disbursements, the fees being the time spent on your case and disbursements the sums of money your solicitor makes no profit on and pays on your behalf, which include money for your GP's documents or court fees.

Insurance policies

You must be aware that if you lose your claim you are required to pay the other side's legal costs. However you should have insurance policies to cover these. Insurance policies you should include motor insurance, household contents insurance, travel insurance and personal accident insurance.

Providing you have these types of legal protection, after an accident you should tell your insurer as soon as possible. You should act quickly as your policy will state that you have a certain amount of time to contact them. Your insurer will then send you a claim form which you should complete and send back. A solicitor will then contact you or if you have your own the insurance company will contact them asking for their opinion on the accident. This is when the claim process begins providing the panel solicitor decides you have a good claim for compensation.

No Win no Fee claims

If you do not have protection insurance there are ways to fund the costs cheaply. You can do it by a ‘no win no fee’ agreement (conditional agreement). This is an agreement whereby your lawyer will agree not to charge professional fees if they lose the case. Other methods include disbursement funding or taking out an insurance policy after the accident in which you can recover your solicitor’s legal costs and the other side's costs if your claim is unsuccessful.