Monday, November 8, 2010

Time Limitation

In England and Wales, under the limitation rules, where an individual is bringing a claim for compensation, court proceedings must be commenced within 3 years of the date of the accident, failing which the claimant will lose the right to bring his or her claim. However, injured parties who were under the age of 18 at the time of their accidents have until the day prior to their 21st birthdays to commence proceedings. A court has the discretion to extend or waive the limitation period if it is considered equitable to do so.
Legal Aid for personal injury cases was largely abolished in the late 1990s and replaced with arrangements whereby the client would be charged no fee if her or his case was unsuccessful (known as No win, no fee).

No win no fee is the term used to describe the Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) between a law firm and their client. In a Personal Injury claim, this is an agreement between the client and their lawyer, which will enable the lawyer to take on a personal injury case on the understanding that if they lose the case, the client will not have to pay their lawyer’s costs.

However if the lawyer wins the case they will be entitled to their standard fee plus an uplift referred to as a success fee. In English law, the success fee cannot be greater than 100% of the lawyer’s standard fee.

38 comments:

  1. Reason why lawyers usually prefer cases they can win easily.

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  2. Informative, but I live in the US =/

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  3. Makes sense that the 3 year period should match that for fraudulent conveyance.

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  4. Interesting. I'm not sure if this applies in Canada though.

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  5. Thanks for the info!

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  6. what if the accident puts you in a coma for 3 years? that would suck =/

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  7. Thanks for sharing this info!

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  8. good stuff, waiting for the next one !

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  9. thats a lot of money...

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  10. Why have a time limit? Are people actually waiting around?

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  11. nice info.. but i'm far away from you

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  12. Great minds think alike. I was just blogging about NWNF today!

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  13. I'm just trying to wrap my head around if the 1990s were good or bad for Ambulance Chasers. Great post!

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  14. Thank god im in continental europe , nice read in any case though

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  15. A success fee can really boost the income of a lawyer, huh?

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  16. great info, thank you :)

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  17. get a time machine
    just kidding, good post

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  18. i think they should cut it to 2 years btw

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