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No Win No Fee

Roche Legal run all compensation claims on a capped No Win No Fee basis – this means you won’t pay any legal fees or expenses unless your claim is won.

Because we won’t get paid until you do, you can be sure we make the process as fast as possible. However, under no circumstances will we ever recommend that you accept an offer to settle for less than what your case is worth.

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The “50/50 Rule”

To make it affordable for you to make a claim, most personal injury law firms run claims on No Win No Fee basis. This is known as a conditional costs agreement. The condition is simple – the law firm must win your case or they cannot charge you for the work completed.

In Queensland, it is a myth that a lawyer can end up charging you more than you receive in compensation, or that lawyers charge large percentages. It is actually illegal for firms to charge fixed percentages on your claim – so with most No Win No Fee arrangements, the lawyers professional fees are calculated and charged by the time spent on your case (and charged by the hour).

By law, professional fees charged by No Win No Fee lawyers cannot exceed 50% of your net personal injury settlement or court award.

This maximum charge is known as the ’50/50 rule’ and it applies regardless of the amount of hours that are spent on your claim. This gives you a ‘worst case scenario’ style cost protection.

At ROCHE Legal, we believe you deserve more than just half of your settlement even in the worst case scenario. We strive to run your claim as cost effectively as possible and only ever charge by the hour – but we set our cost cap at a maximum of 40% rather than the legislated maximum of 50% under the 50/50 rule.

So with us, you are guaranteed to collect an absolute minimum of 60% of your net settlement – no matter what.

This is why we say our offer is better than the standard No Win No Fee cost protections and are known as Brisbane’s Best No Win No Fee Lawyers.

No Win No Fee Comparison

Roche Legal’s “60/40 rule” offers better protection for lower legal costs.

Roche Legal Fee Comparison

A worked example of the 50/50 rule vs our 60/40 rule

In a ‘worst case scenario’, if your claim didn’t go to court and settled for a hypothetical $100,000, but your lawyer’s fees calculated by the hour totalled $60,000 (and your claim incurred $10,000 worth of expenses for medico-legal reports and barrister fees for example), then the lawyer’s fees would be discounted as follows:

Ordinary 50/50 Rule

  • $100,000 – $10,000 = $90,000 x 50% = $45,000 maximum other lawyer’s fee.

Compensation to you: $45,000

Roche Legal’s 60/40 Rule

  • $100,000 – $10,000 = $90,000 x 40% = $36,000 maximum Roche Legal fee.

Compensation to you: $54,000

So, the total legal fees that an ordinary ‘no win no fee’ lawyer could charge by law under the 50/50 rule is $45,000 despite their legal fees being calculated at $60,000 on an hourly basis.

Comparatively, at Roche Legal, the most we would charge for the same amount of legal work is $36,000 because of our 60/40 rule.

In this example, our extra cost protection provides a $9,000 saving resulting in more compensation funds paid into your bank account. Plus, because we charge on a time basis only, our legal fees rarely ever reach the maximum of 40%.

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It costs nothing to find out if you have a claim. Click the button below or phone us on 1300 335 334 for a free case review. You have nothing to lose and could have a lot to gain by speaking with our Brisbane compensation lawyers today.

Free compensation claim check

In most personal injury cases, your claim for damages must be substantiated by medical evidence. The best evidence is obtained by attending on a doctor for an independent medical examination. Sometimes more than one examination is required and can cost from $3,000 – $5,000 per report. Similar costs can be spent on other expert reports to prove liability. Further, a barrister may be employed to argue your case in court and there will likely be court fees. It is not uncommon for a personal injury claim to have disbursements totalling $10,000 – $20,000, and more if the matter goes to trial.

At Roche Legal, our standard No Win No Fee agreement covers these expenses (with no markups) and if you lose your case, we will not seek to recover these costs from you.

Office Expenses

We do not charge our clients for internal expenses that we incur whilst running your claim – such as printing, scanning, copying, faxing, emailing, etc.

Refunds

Almost every personal injury claim requires that any money that has already been paid to you because of your injuries is refunded at the conclusion of your claim when you win. The most common refunds are sums payable to Medicare, Centrelink, Workcover and private health insurers. Do not fear – we take refunds into account by including such amounts in our calculations of what the at-fault party owes to you.

When you have legal representation acting for you on a no win no fee basis and lose your claim, you will not have to pay your solicitors fees. However, if you win your claim, the professional costs and disbursements become payable. But why should you have to pay legal fees when the other side is being held liable for your injuries?

When an injury is significant, Queensland legislation often allows for the recovery of a portion of your actual legal costs from the other side in most situations when you win or settle your case. There are some exceptions to this rule (such as workers’ compensation matters).

Call Roche Legal to find out whether the other side will likely be required to pay or contribute to your legal costs.

No Win No Fee Claims

At Roche Legal, our Brisbane lawyers offer no win no fee representation for the following type of legal claims:

Contact us today for a free compensation claim check or read our complete guide on No Win No Fee agreements and how to maximise your claim and minimise costs.