First, there is the issue of how do you pay for your own lawyer’s costs.
A key priority for individuals and local residents who privately fund their cases is certainty about costs. At Hodge Jones & Allen, we will carefully assess your requirements and provide you with an estimate of costs. We will regularly advise you of progress in your case, with frequent cost updates, and we will immediately let you know if we have to revise our estimate.
We can offer a variety of payment options depending on the type of case:
1) Payment of our costs at an agreed hourly rate with an agreed estimate or cap on hours.
2) A fixed fee arrangement so you can be sure that regardless of the outcome of your case, you will not pay more than the agreed fee.
3) Conditional Fee Agreements (“CFA”) “No-Win, No-Fee” or “hybrid” CFA.
We sometimes take on cases on a conditional fee basis (known as “no-win, no-fee”). This means that you will only have to pay our fees if you win your case (and these are likely to be recoverable in any event from your opponent). If you lose your case you do not have to pay our fees (other than disbursements such as court fees, photocopying and travel), although you might be liable for your opponent’s costs (see paying for your opponent’s costs below).
If we take on a case on a hybrid CFA, if you lose you pay something like only half our normal fees (depending on what is agreed in the hybrid CFA) and if you win then you have to pay the additional half of our fees, but we will seek to recover all the fees from your opponent.
4) Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding for your case via various well known websites is now a really viable way of raising a substantial part if not all of your costs. We have experience of many cases that have been funded in part or all by crowdfunding and we can give you more details about this when we speak to you.