How to bring a ‘No Win No Fee Personal Injury Claim in Gibraltar.
Chris Brunt is a Gibraltar personal injury lawyer, a barrister and acting solicitor who will consider all personal injury claims on a No Win No Fee basis. Contact me for a free consultation to see if I can help you win the compensation you are entitled to. Use the contact form here and I will get back to you to discuss your claim.
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This is my first post, and welcome to my blog on personal injury claims in Gibraltar. I am a Gibraltar lawyer who specialises in personal injury claims and who offers legal representation to clients often on a No Win No Fee basis who have suffered injury as a result of someone else’s negligence, for instance, those who have been involved in an accident which was not their fault.
Contact me for a free consultation to see if I can help you win the compensation you are entitled to on a No Win No Fee basis. Use the contact form here and I will get back to you to discuss your claim.
Hopefully, though, you will never need to contact a personal injury lawyer. However, if you or a loved one has been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence it is only right that you receive the compensation you deserve.
Of course, no amount of money can completely compensate you for the pain and discomfort, and sometimes permanent disability, that an injury from an accident or negligence from others can cause; so it is only right that your lawyer understands your personal situation so that your claim includes all your losses, both past, as well as future losses and that your personal injury lawyer ensures that you receive the best financial outcome possible.
In this blog post, I will highlight the foundations of Gibraltar’s Personal Injury law, and then discuss the personal injury claim process. I will explain what your lawyer will do for you when making your claim, what is expected from you and how a No Win No Fee (Known as a Conditional Fee Agreement) operates in Gibraltar.
Background to Personal Injury Law in Gibraltar
Let’s start at the beginning. A claim for personal injury is a common law claim. This means the substantive law is not set out in Gibraltar legislation; rather it is a part of Gibraltar’s common law which follows English common law. Common law is judge-made law founded on legal concepts and precedents given and developed over time by judges. The procedural law which, importantly, dominates the process when bringing a personal injury claim in Gibraltar, also follows the English legal system’s procedural set of rules. Gibraltar lawyers, therefore, use the English Civil Procedure Rules when issuing a personal injury claim in the Supreme Court of Gibraltar. The Civil Procedure Rules are the rules of court that personal injury lawyers have to adhere to when issuing a claim, at least to the extent these rules are suitable for the circumstances of Gibraltar.
So what is involved in bringing a claim for personal injury should you be in the unfortunate position to have been involved in an accident or have suffered an injury as a result of someone else’s negligence?
Time limits for bringing a personal injury claim in Gibraltar
It is crucial to realise that a Gibraltar personal injury claim must be brought no later than 3 years from the date of the accident or act or omission which has caused the injury (the Limitation Period). If you fail to file a claim form in the Supreme Court of Gibraltar (and which sets out your claim) within the 3-year period you will almost certainly be disbarred from bringing your claim, and you will have lost the right to any compensation you might otherwise have received.
There are a few limited exceptions which I will discuss in later blog posts, such as a claim for a child under the age of 18 in which case the limitation period is extended from 3 years from a child’s 18th birthday, that is until they are 21. An extended limitation period (past 3 years) also occurs when it was impossible for a client to know that they had suffered an injury (think asbestos claims). In this situation the time for bringing the claim is extended to the date of the claimant’s date of knowledge of having suffered an injury or illness (but there are even limitations even to this), I will discuss these exceptions separately in a later post but please note these are by far the exception, not the rule.
The safest way to proceed therefore is to consider that a Gibraltar personal injury claim cannot be brought after 3 years of the date of the accident or negligent act or omission which has caused the injury!
What a No Win No Fee personal injury lawyer will do for you?
When contacting the lawyer an appointment will be made to meet up to discuss your case in detail. For instance, I always offer a free consultation in order to assess the merits of any claim and will always provide an indication as to how best to proceed with any claim that you might have.
All of the personal injury cases I take on behalf of my clients are on a ‘No Win No Fee basis.
Once a client has explained the details of how the accident or injury occurred, the lawyer will give a certain, or provisional indication, of the strengths of the claim. If a conditional fee agreement is agreed upon (the proper name for a ‘No Win No Fee), a contractual document will be prepared which will set out the ‘No Win No Fee arrangement in detail, in which the personal injury lawyer agrees to pursue the claim on his client’s behalf and provide legal services at no cost to the client unless the personal injury claim is successful, so a client will not pay anything to the lawyer unless the lawyer wins on the client’s behalf.
How does the client pay the personal injury lawyer when the claim is successful?
Typically, when the claim settles two things happen. Firstly, the client will win an award for compensation from the defendant (usually the defendant’s insurers called damages) The defendant or their insurers will be responsible for most of the client’s legal fees on the basis that the losing party is responsible for the winner’s costs. But happily, for the client, the situation in personal injury claims is, in the event, the claimant does not win his claim, the client is protected from paying the defendant’s cost by Qualified One Way Costs Shifting (QOCS). There are exceptions to this such as when a client has pursued a vexatious or fraudulent claim, but these are very rare of course, and I am not aware of any in Gibraltar.
Every client I have represented (100% of my clients) has gone on to successfully win their claim.
So then, assuming the client is successful the defendant or his insurers will pay the majority of the client’s legal fees in addition to paying damages or compensation to the client for their injury. It is an important feature of the No Win No Fee agreement however that on winning the claim for his client, the personal injury lawyer is entitled to receive a ‘success fee’ from the client which is taken from the compensation payment. This is set as a percentage of the lawyer’s standard fee and is pre-agreed with the client before the lawyer begins his work representing his client.
Fees, typically payable to your lawyer when you win your personal injury claim
While the defendant, or the defendant’s insurers, pay the majority of the successful client’s lawyer’s fees, It is important to add that the ‘success fee is payable by a client in the event they are successful with their claim. The success fee is a percentage uplift of the lawyer’s standard fees incurred during the course of acting for their client. It is pre-calculated as a reflection of the difficulties that existed or that might emerge in the client’s case while bringing the claim. However, the lawyer’s success fee can never be greater than 25% of the client’s damages or compensation for the injury part of the award, (known as pain suffering and loss of amenity or PSLA), and often the success fee is much less. This gives the client the assurance that they will always keep at least 75% of the damages or compensation they win for what is known as General Damages (the injury part of the award).
While the defendant or their insurers are responsible for the client’s legal fees in a successful claim, it is not uncommon for there to be a shortfall in the amount that a client can recover from the defendant (typically a successful client recovers around 70-75% of their costs from the defendant, though this can vary). The client is therefore also responsible for making up the difference and which is also typically paid to the lawyer from the client’s damages or compensation award in a successful claim.
However, as a reminder and as the name ‘No Win No Fee’ suggests if a claim is not successful (I have a 100% success rate though) the client will, of course, pay nothing to their personal injury lawyer.
While a No Win No Fee arrangement means you do not pay upfront for your legal fees (and of course do not pay at all in the event you are unsuccessful) there are costs which you should take into account. These are known as disbursements. A disbursement is a fee paid to a third party to your ‘No Win in No Fee’ agreement such as the fee a claimant will need to pay to an independent medical expert who will compile a report to report on their injuries. This report is vital to ensure an injury and the effects of the injury, short or long term, and the prognosis are assessed and reported on in order to value the claim accurately.
The other disbursement is the court issue fee, though most cases I am involved in actually settle before court. If a client is successful in their claim they can expect to receive back with their compensation both the medical experts fee they have paid for producing the report, and if a claim has not been settled before issuing a claim (though most are) the court issue fee is also claimed back from the defendant.
What can you claim for in a personal injury claim?
The most common heads of claim are General Damages and Special Damages. As discussed above, General Damages is typically the award for the injury itself and is an award for the pain suffering and loss of amenity for having suffered the injury, both past and future. Whereas Special Damages include the financial losses a client has incurred and will incur in the future as a result of their injury. Special Damages include such things as, loss of earnings, incurred as a result of a client being off sick, recovering from their injury, and not being paid by his employer during their recovery. It could also include for example private payments for physiotherapy treatment, and payments for private medication, taxi fares to hospital appointments. In fact, any necessary financial expense that a client has incurred as a result of their injury is potentially claimable from the defendant.
If you are contemplating a claim I always advise my clients to keep a log of their expenses and keep receipts where possible so as to assist in proving their financial losses.
Further posts
There are other losses in addition to the above that a client can claim for and which may be appropriate in some cases, such as a claim for Gratuitous Care, and a Smith and Manchester Award, I will discuss these in a later blog.
Contact me for a free consultation to see if I can help you win the compensation you are entitled to on a No Win No Fee basis. Use the contact form here and I will get back to you to discuss your claim.
Have you been injured by someone else’s negligence, a road traffic accident perhaps, a trip in a shop or in the street, or perhaps you have been injured at work Contact me for a free half-hour discussion in order for me to assess your prospects of bringing a claim for your personal injury? I always consider representing clients on a No Win No Fee basis and have 100% success in obtaining compensation on my client’s behalf. Contact me at Phillips Barristers and Solicitors, 292 Main Street, Gibraltar, GX11 1AA. Call me on 200 73900. Or email me at chris.brunt@phillips.gi or use the contact form on this site http://personalinjurylawyergibraltar.com/contact/
Disclaimer
All opinions are my own and are provided for information only and do not constitute legal advice. Please note that the information and any commentary on Gibraltar law contained in this article are provided free of charge for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort is made to make the information and commentary accurate and up to date, but I do not accept responsibility for its accuracy and or for any consequences of relying on it. The information and commentary do not, and are not intended to, amount to legal advice to any person on a specific case or matter. You are strongly advised to obtain specific, personal legal advice about your case or matter and not to rely on the information or comments on the site http://personalinjurylawyergibraltar.com/
