We have attempted to cover the fees associated with the most common services here. If you want to know fees for a service not covered here, please Contact Us.
At Adam Bernard Solicitors, our work in relation to motoring offences is charged by a fixed fee and/or through conditional fee agreements estimates of the amount payable are below.
The work that will be carried out are as follows:
In cases where the person pleads guilty and the case is dealt with at a single hearing the whole case is usually completed within six months from the date of the offence.
It is impossible to predict how long your claim will take to resolve. If liability is admitted by the other side then claims will usually take up to 6-8 months. This allows us time to organise a medical examination and collect any other information or documentation in support of your claim. If liability is denied and the matter progresses towards a trial then the matter could take 12-18 months.
VAT & disbursements
Our fees and some disbursements are subject to VAT at 20%. The amount charged for the disbursements depends upon a number of variables so we will be able to advise you of the correct charges when we have further information.
The time spent on the above preparation will depend on the nature of the case and our fixed fee from the rate of £500 plus VAT (chargeable at 20%) and/or subject to a Conditional Fee Agreement (where applicable). This figure does not include any additional work in relation to:
Disbursements Fees (VAT charged at 20% where applicable) Counsel Fees
Avg. £500 plus VAT Translation Fees
Avg.£150 plus VAT Expert Fee’s Avg. £500-£700 plus VAT Paying us if you win
If you win your claim, you pay our basic charges, our expenses and disbursements and a success fee together with the premium for any insurance you take out. You are entitled to seek recovery from your opponent of part or all of our basic charges and our expenses and disbursements, but not the success fee or any insurance premium.
The overall amount we will charge you for our basic charges, success fees, expenses and disbursements is limited as set out in Schedule 2 below.
It may be that your opponent makes a formal offer to settle your claim which you reject on our advice, and your claim for damages goes ahead to trial where you recover damages that are less than that offer. If this happens, we will not claim any costs for the work done after we received notice of the offer or payment. In these circumstances, you may be ordered to pay your opponents costs, but only up to the amount of damages and interest awarded to you.
Expenses and Disbursements
If you receive interim damages, we may require you to pay our expenses and disbursements at that point and a reasonable amount for our future expenses and disbursements.
If you receive provisional damages, we are entitled to payment of our basic charges, our expenses and disbursements and success fee at that point.
If you win overall but on the way lose an interim hearing, you may be required to pay your opponent’s charges of that hearing, but usually only up to the amount of damages awarded to you.
If on the way to winning or losing you are awarded any costs, by agreement or court order, then we are entitled to payment of those costs, together with a success fee on those charges if you win overall.
If you lose you will normally have the benefit of Qualified One-Way Cost Shifting so the court will not usually enforce an order for costs against you, unless:
If you lose, you do not pay our charges but we may require you to pay our expenses and disbursements.
The success fee is set at 100% of our basic charges, where the claim concludes
at trial; or 100 % where the claim concludes before a trial has commenced.
The success fee percentage reflects the following:
(a) the fact that if you lose, we will not earn anything;
(b) our assessment of the risks of your case;
(c) any other appropriate matters;
(d) the fact that if you win we will not be paid our basic charges until the end of the claim;
(e) our arrangement with you about paying expenses and disbursements;
(f) the arrangements about payment of our costs if your opponent makes a Part 36 offer or payment which you reject on our advice, and your claim for damages goes ahead to trial where you recover damages that are less than that offer or payment.
The Success Fee cannot be more than 100% of the basic charges in total.
There is a maximum limit on the amount of the success fee which we can recover from you.
That maximum limit is 25% of the total amount of any:
(i) general damages for pain suffering and loss of amenity; and
(ii) damages for pecuniary loss, other than future pecuniary loss;
which are awarded to you in the proceedings covered by this agreement. The maximum limit is applicable to these damages net of any sums recoverable by the Compensation Recovery Unit of the Department of Work and Pensions. The maximum limit is inclusive of any VAT which is chargeable
However, this maximum limit applies only to a success fee for proceedings at first instance and not to a success fee on other proceedings (such as, for example, an appeal against a final judgment or order).
We will provide you with a copy of any relevant judgment or of our calculation of any settlement showing how much of your damages should be attributed to General
Damages and Past Pecuniary Loss, net of any sums recoverable by the Compensation Recovery Unit.
You also have the right to apply to the court for assessment of our costs, including our success fee.
These are for work done from now until this agreement ends. These are subject to review.
These are calculated for each hour engaged on your matter. Routine letters and telephone calls will be charged as units of one tenth of an hour. Other letters and telephone calls will be charged on a time basis. The hourly rates are:
We will limit the total amount of charges, success fees, expenses and disbursements (inclusive of VAT) payable by you (net of any contribution to your costs paid by your opponent) to a maximum of 25% of the damages you receive.
We are allowed to keep any interest your opponent pays on the charges.
You agree to pay into a designated account any cheque received by you or by us from your opponent and made payable to you. Out of the money, you agree to let us take the balance of the basic charges; success fee; insurance premium; our remaining expenses and disbursements; and VAT.
If your opponent does not pay any damages or charges owed to you, we have the right to take recovery action in your name to enforce a judgment, order or agreement. The charges of this action become part of the basic charges.
The cost of advocacy and any other work by us, or by any solicitor agent on our behalf, forms part of our basic charges. We shall discuss with you the identity of any barrister instructed, and the arrangements made for payment.
If you win, you are normally entitled to recover their fee from your opponent, but not their success fee. The barrister’s success fee is shown in the separate conditional fee agreement we make with the barrister. You must pay the barrister’s success fee shown in the separate conditional fee agreement we make with the barrister. We will discuss the barrister’s success fee with you before we instruct him or her. If you lose, you pay the barrister nothing.
The barrister’s success fee is included within the maximum limit to the recoverable success fee in proceedings at first instance as explained in Schedule 1.
If you win, then you will normally be entitled to recover all or part of their fee from your opponent. If you lose, then you must pay their fee.
Guideline hourly rates
| Fee earner | Hourly Rate (ex. VAT chargeable at 20%) | ||
| Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience |
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| Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years’ experience |
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| Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience | £185 p/h | ||
| Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners |
|
Guideline hourly rates
| Fee earner | Hourly Rate (ex. VAT chargeable at 20%) | ||
| Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience |
| ||
| Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years’ experience |
| ||
| Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience | £244 p/h | ||
| Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners |
|
We may quote a fixed fee based on our hourly fee earner hourly rates based on an approximation of the number of hours. Generally, it takes between 4-8 hours of work to complete a general application, however this varies. This means that on average costs are between £500 and £6,000 depending on the application.
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