JARGON BUSTER

ATE Insurance

ATE is short for ‘after-the-event’ insurance. This is an insurance policy you can take out after an accident has already happened so that you can pursue a compensation claim. If your claim is not successful, the insurance policy should pay your opponent’s legal costs and disbursements (expenses). Your solicitor will advise you fully on this aspect of your claim.

Basic Charges

The amount a solicitor charges for the legal work involved in handling your claim. They are calculated using either an hourly rate or fixed costs, depending on the protocol the claim has been dealt under. If an hourly rate is applied, these rates may vary depending on the experience of the person doing the work. Your solicitor will explain to you how their basic charges are calculated and put it in writing.

BTE Insurance

BTE is short for ‘before-the-event’ insurance. It is also known as legal expenses insurance and is often offered as an optional extra when you take out car and household contents insurance. Some credit cards have BTE insurance, but it can be taken out as separate insurance, too. BTE insurance may pay for the legal costs of making a claim for compensation, whether you win or lose. Your solicitor will be able to check the terms and conditions of any BTE insurance you have and tell you what it will and will not cover.

Breach of Contract

A contract is ‘breached’ if it has been broken or ignored in some way, for example, if your car comes back from the garage after a service and it doesn’t work, the garage will have breached its contract with you.

Clinical Negligence

The legal term used to describe medical accident where someone has been harmed because a doctor or other healthcare professional has not given the proper standard of care. But not all complications or medical procedures that don’t work are clinical negligence, because sometimes what happened could not have been avoided.

Conditional Fee

This is a contract between you and your solicitor under which your solicitor will not get paid for their work unless you win your case. This agreement is more widely referred to as a ‘no win no fee agreement’. Should you lose though you may still be liable for your opponent’s costs.

Your solicitors will advise you on the merits of obtaining ATE insurance to cover such an eventuality.

Damages

The money you are awarded as compensation, either after a court hearing or by reaching an agreement before getting to court.

Disbursements

Disbursements are expenses, such as court fees, medical reports and police accident reports. Your solicitor may pay these for you at the start of your claim and get repaid by your opponent if your claim is successful. If you don’t win your claim, these costs can be paid under some after-the-event insurance policies.

Limitation Period

This is the period of time within which you must make a claim for compensation. It is usually three years for personal injury cases and six years for other claims. After this time, you are very unlikely to be able to make a claim, although there are exceptions to this. Your solicitor will advise you about the limitation period that applies in your particular case. This is a good reason for seeing a solicitor as soon as you think you may have a possible claim for compensation.

Negligence

Negligence is when a person or organisation doesn’t take reasonable care over something where they have a duty to do so, for example, failing to drive carefully. If you are injured because someone was negligent (they did something they shouldn’t, or didn’t do something they should), you may be able to claim compensation.

Other Side, Opponent

These are the different terms you may hear used to describe the organisation, person or defendant from whom you are claiming compensation.

Personal Injury

Any injury you suffer is personal, but in legal terms, a personal injury for  which you can claim compensation is where a person, or a company is to blame (at least partly) for your injuries. An injury need not be physical – you may be able to claim compensation for mental and psychological injury.

Statutory Duty

This is a legal responsibility to do something set out in an Act of Parliament. So, for example, employers are under a statutory duty to protect the health and safety of their employees. If an employer fails to do this they are said to be ‘in breach of their statutory duty’.

Success Fee

Solicitors who act under a Conditional Fee Agreement usually charge an extra fee on top of their basic charges if you win your case. This charge reflects the risks of running a case which might fail and result in the solicitor being paid nothing. This is called a success fee. It is a proportion of your solicitor’s basic charges and cannot be more than 100% of the basic fee itself. Your solicitor should explain their success fee before you start your claim. If you win your case, legislation limits the amount of the success fee to a maximum of 25% of your compensation for pain, suffering, loss of amenity and past losses and is payable out of your compensation.