In days gone by members of the public would visit their local, usually family solicitor, for all their legal requirements. That has been changing and current figures show that more and more consumers will look to use solicitors from any location in the country.
Consumers willing to use lawyer anywhere in country, research finds - Legal Futures
For many years now consumers have been paired with solicitors through middlemen. The middlemen received a fee for packaging the claim and the solicitor bought that claim. That often led to consumers being placed not with the best solicitor, but the solicitor who paid the most.
As a result, the Conditional Fee Arrangement (CFA) consumers were asked to sign and subsequent success fees deducted may not have been the best that could have been offered or secured by shopping around. Too many clients were "sold" a success fee if 25% of compensation as if this was an industry standard, or even "the law", the implication being that there was no point shopping around. The truth is a 25% success fee is a cap, not a target. In addition to being juggernauted into signing the CFA over the phone consumers are being packaged, processed and spat out the other end.Whilst consumers taking control of their own destiny is to some extent a positive thing they are still left in the wilderness about the Conditional Fee agreement (CFA) they are being asked to sign, the level of success fee that will be deducted from damages, what an ATE policy is, what their final Statute bill actually means or what a final Statute bill is.
Was this similar to your experience? Have you been asked to sign a document you are unsure about? Have you got questions about the final statute bill you have been sent? If so please contact us for a no obligation chat as we may be able to either put your mind at rest, or, advise on your rights for an assessment.