THE government is planning to make major changes to the Legal Aid Scheme.

It is proposing to remove Legal Aid for most personal injury claims. Instead of using public funding for claims for compensation for personal injury following an accident, the government wants solicitors to use far more widely Conditional Fee Agreements or, as they are more commonly known, No Win No Fee Agreements.

When a solicitor acts under a No Win No Fee Agreement he can charge a success fee of up to 25% of the compensation awarded. At present, this is deducted from the client's damages but the proposal is that the success fee will be paid by the defendant. However, this rule is unlikely to come into effect until the end of this year at the earliest.

In addition, in order to be protected under a No Win No Fee Agreement, the claimant needs to take out an insurance policy. It is also proposed that if successful, the insurance policy premium will be paid by the defendant. These two major changes will make No Win No Fee Agreements more attractive to the claimant as in most cases there should then be no deduction from the damages.

The government is allowing Legal Aid to remain, for the time being, for medical negligence cases. It is, however, restricting very substantially the number of firms of solicitors which can act in medical negligence claims under a Legal Aid Certificate. Legal Aid is now only available from quality-assured franchised solicitors who are specialists in this area of law and hold a Franchise in Clinical Negligence.

As always, my advice is that if you are injured, whether by way of an accident or through medical negligence, that you consult a specialist solicitor.

Andrew Newton is a Partner at Maxwell Entwistle & Byrne, West Kirby, one of the few firms of solicitors who hold a Franchise in Clinical Negligence and do not charge a success fee to clients under the No Win No Fee Scheme. Andrew Newton is a member of the Law Society's Personal Injury Panel.

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