Injury Claims Legal Aid
The instances of compensation claim in the UK have become quite popular and many legal as well as sociological experts have started referring to the trend as ‘compensation culture’. Injury claims in the UK are quite random as the English law has always provided special importance on the celebration of civil rights of individuals, both in the fields of jurisprudence and practical application. The basic principle of injury claims suggest that every individual has certain degrees of civil rights which include freedom of movement, making association, liberty to take decisions that don’t harm interests of others, enjoying a healthy lifestyle and finally the freedom to enjoy financial liberty.
Any such action, whether committed by an individual or an organization, if infringes these rights completely or partially, would make the aggrieved party eligible for monetary compensation. The compensation amount would be decided by a court of law. This would not only stand as a warning against the act, committed by the offender negligently or carelessly, but also aims at providing adequate support to the aggrieved person to recover from the injury.
Scope of the Injury Claims Legal Aid:
The UK government provided its citizens with the liberty to enjoy financial assistance against any form of personal injury. However, with the introduction of Legal Aid bill in 1998 several amendments also came to fashion that excluded compensation claims for car accidents and personal injury from purview of the earlier policy. While the decision has widely been hailed by legislators as apt enough to reduce the increasing charge of legal expenditure, on the other hand, citizens of the county, who were really under the need of financial assistance, found themselves quite at a helpless situation. It was also opined that the exclusion would limit the scope of law from addressing the situations correctly.
Conditional Fee Agreement or ‘No Win No Fee’ – the New Injury Claims Legal Aid?
The government attempted to compensate the removal by introducing conditional fee agreement that became popular as ‘No Win No Fee’ scheme among citizens as well as legal practitioners. The main purpose behind introducing the facility was allowing the needy people with genuine argument to enjoy financial liberty while addressing a matter of legal dispute. People, who could no longer have availed the benefits of financial assistance from government in cases of car accident and personal injury, with the conditional fee agreement they received the liberty of not paying for legal expenditure. On behalf of needy people, the soliciting firm would be taking care of all the expenses and once the situation is resolved and the case is won, the plaintiff would be liable to pay back the law firm. The court of law will make sure that the legal cost and any other type of expenditure is added to the overall compensation amount as well.
The Conditions for Receiving Legal Aid:
The three major criteria that a person must fulfil to receive legal aid (conditional fee agreement/no win no fee) are:
a) That the overall cost of the case is less than the possible benefit awarded
b) That your income level is low enough to satisfy benefits of the scheme
c) That there is a fair chance of winning the case on your behalf
To continue knowing more on injury claims legal aid and further developments occurring in the field, continue reading the updated posts at Legalaideducation.org.
