Food safety

An inquest happens when a coroner decides to investigate the circumstances of a death to determine how the person died before registering the death. The food safety team has extensive experience in representing families at inquests.

We aim to secure interim payments so treatments and therapies can begin as soon as possible. They may also cover loss of earnings or other financial expenses you incur.

These are complicated agreements and your solicitor must explain the terms carefully to you. They are often called "No Win, No Fee" agreements but also include agreements under which you pay capped or discounted costs in any event with full costs being charged in the event that you win. If you do win your case most of the costs can be recovered from your opponent. If you lose your case you are only liable for your own legal costs to the limited extent agreed, as long as you keep to the terms of our agreement.

If you win your case the law does allow us to charge an additional "success fee" calculated as a percentage of the basic costs. This “success fee” is not recoverable from your opponent and if we are charging a ‘success fee’ you will have to meet it from your own pocket or from damages. There are regulations in place which limit the maximum amount of success fee that can be charged.

In some circumstances, if you lose you may be liable to pay your opponent's legal costs, but it may also be possible to buy insurance to protect against this risk.

We will carefully advise you about funding in your case and if we enter a CFA with you, we will advise you at the outset about anything you may have to pay.

Some trade unions have a legal advice and assistance scheme which allows you to obtain advice from an approved solicitor. If you are a member of a trade union, you will probably be entitled to a free initial interview to decide whether you have a case which is likely to succeed. Your union may then fund the whole of the case for you and there will be no risk that you will have to pay the costs.

Sometimes the union will act as insurance if your case is not successful. Usually, this method of funding means that the claimant gets all of their compensation at the end of the case and has no risks of paying the legal costs. Some Unions even have schemes to pay for cases brought by your children or spouse.

This kind of insurance policy is purchased before the accident happens and is usually attached to other insurance policies such as household, travel or motor insurance, for a small annual fee. Sometimes insurance is attached to credit card agreements, or as a benefit attached to bank accounts. Similar to legal aid, this policy will cover costs in the event of a case losing but it does not cover all the costs of the claim if the case is successful. You need to tell your solicitor about any possibility that you may already have insurance.

This is the most straightforward method of funding legal action but also the least popular. The lawyer undertakes the work, the client pays and if we win the case, the lawyer will try to recover the costs from the defendants. Unfortunately if we lose the case the client is also responsible for paying the costs of the defendants. This form of funding is unpopular because the client takes all of the risk of the case losing and of paying the other side’s costs. They also have to find a substantial amount of money up front to fund the expenses of the claim.