Dear Prospective Client,

To understand the value of our promise: If you don’t win, you don’t pay, you need to understand something about how the legal costs of litigation are worked out and who pays them.

In this discussion, ‘work’ includes disbursements paid out on your behalf.  Disbursements typically include fees for doctors’ or other experts’ reports, or filing fees, etc.  Blumers Personal Injury Lawyers pay for your disbursements up front and disbursements are included in the don’t win, don’t pay promise. 

What you pay your solicitor, whether by agreement or by the operation of the law, are called solicitor and client costs.  These are all of the costs reasonably incurred by your solicitor in preparing and running, or settling, your case.

The losing party in a case is generally ordered to pay the winning party’s costs.  These are called party and party costs.  These are only the costs necessarily incurred by the winning party’s solicitor.

Work reasonably done will usually be more than work necessarily done.  Therefore, typically, party and party costs are less than solicitor and client costs - about one-half to three-quarters of solicitor and client costs.

If you lose your case, it is very likely that you will be ordered to pay the other side’s party and party costs.  In our Client Agreement, we agree to indemnify you for the other side’s costs.  In other words, if you are ordered to pay the party and party costs of the other side, we agree to pay them for you.

Our offer enables you to conduct your litigation in a much less risky environment.  That is because we share the risk with you.  As far as we are aware, Blumers Personal Injury Lawyers is the only legal firm in Australia that currently offers this indemnity for the other side’s costs.  Why do we do that?

Firstly, we want to be able to say, and mean, without qualification, “If you don’t win, you don’t pay.”  Secondly, we know more generally about the risks of litigation than most of our clients, for whom making a personal injury claim is a once in a lifetime experience.  Thirdly, the risks of litigation change and shift as the matter progresses.  As more information is revealed, our assessment of the prospects of your case will change.  Because of our indemnity, we have double the reason to keep a close eye on those changes as they occur and to calculate the shifting risks.  

We believe our offer represents outstanding value to clients.

Yours sincerely,

Noor and Mark Blumer