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Hey now worries mentioning the helmet thing, we want to know stuff like that.
The solicitor my Mum spoke to yesterday said their fee would be a quarter of the settlement, is that fair enough?
The solicitor my Mum spoke to on Tuesday when my Mum asked about his fee said "Oh don't worry about the fee that comes out of the other guys insurance". But my response to that (I wasn't there at the time I just mean when my Mum told me what he'd said) was what does that mean "it comes out of the guys insurance" cos surely any settlement comes out of the other guys insurance, no?
Thanks so much for the comments so far its all helping begin to understand the process a bit and any further input will be very welcome.
JamesNorthYorkshire-
My suggestion Of S+G would appear to be bad, it's been a few years since I had any dealing with them.
Your mums injuries will exceed the small claims limit of £1000 (currently) by the sound of it they would also exceed a £5000 limit too. Once the settlement is over the £1k limit solicitors are entitled to their costs being paid by the third parties insurers and this is total independent of any settlement your mum would get.
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If making a common law claim through a solicitor, generally if you 'win', i.e. if an agreement is made to settle the claim, the claimant has a right to recover their reasonable legal costs from the defendant. It also means that if you 'lose', you could be liable for the insurer's costs in defending the claim. It's important to understand all of the ins and outs of any agreement that a solicitor want you to sign up to when they take on the claim - the 'Conditional Fee Agreement'.
Recoverable costs in personal injury claims have decreased in a few ways following reforms introduced in 2013. Some firms now operate on a 'damages based agreement' basis to make up for this shortfall, whereby you enter in to an agreement to forgoe a certain percentage of your damages settlement. In theory, this is meant to incentivise the claimant's solicitors to recover as much in damages as possible, but in practice this isn't always the case when dealing with high-frequency / (relatively) low loss claims. In any event, they should be trying to maximise damages anyway.
HousecatHST
Harrington
Really feel for you, hope your mum heals up fast.
Slater and Gordon are decent no win no fee solicitors. Your mum has some nasty injurys and will be looking at a good size pay out so they will happily take the case and all costs will be picked up by the drivers insurance.
The drivers insurance will try to knock something for the no helmet thing, DONT ACCEPT THAT, they'll try it on but they will back down as if the case goes to court as they will side with your mum. (Sorry to mention helmet thing, I used to work in injury claims and I know they'll try it on)