SDT Clears Personal Injury Solicitor of Improper Fee Allegations

(SDT) Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal Clears Two Lawyers.

Yasin Bagas and Arif Barber the principal of Barber and Co are cleared from being accused of making fee deductions. This statement was made known by Legal Futures. The SRA accused these two solicitors of making wrongful success fee deductions to client’s damages.  They were accused right after it was made clear that the legal costs were far less what the contracts required.

Personal injury lawyer, Yasin Bagas was also suspected of possible fraudulent activities with Arif Barber. However, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found that both were unaware of the fraudulent activity, Arif Barber still managed to receive a hefty fine. The fine was for rule breaches and amounted to an astonishing £8000.

No Win No Fee Hidden Costs.

Although the term ‘no win no fee’ might be used by the majority of firms, it seems that not all clients know exactly what it means. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal feels that a number of solicitors even commit crimes without them even knowing. As mentioned above. This is mostly due to a lack of knowledge. The term strictly means that there are no legal fees if the claim is unsuccessful. However, if a client wins their case, there will be added legal success fees on top of regular fees. Even with no win no fee cases there are still upfront fees as well such as medical costs. 

The compensation a client receives acts as a sort of financial safe haven. It allows them to cover expenses such as a lack of income. Since all the ‘extra’ fees are deducted from the compensation it deprives the actual purpose of the settlement. This is why there is a controversy going on concerning claims fees and extra added fees. A lot of claimants feel that even if they win their case they still manage to lose a lot. They end up with a severe injury and they only get a portion of their settlement if they win.  There are a number of cases where after the fee deductions the client was left with not enough compensation to cover his expenses.

Example to Take Advice From.

Law Gazette published an article in August of 2015 of a similar incident. The firm in the report charged their clients a standard 100% success fee, to be capped at 25% of all damages. This received quite a reaction from the court. The judge responded to the thought of firms setting success fees in order to proceed with claims. The suggestion that personal injury solicitors will not undertake a case if there is no guarantee of success fee is unjustified. Firms and Solicitors can only wait and see if the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) decides to intervene and adjust the system.

In Summary.

There are various parties that feel the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal should in fact not have cleared the lawyers. Yet, there are also parties who agree with them.  The more incidents that occur might just lead to a change in how they calculate success fees. None the less it’s still necessary to work with injury claim lawyers when involved in an accident. Even with added legal fees, at the end of the day, a no win no fee solicitor will still cost less than a regular solicitor.