Compensation 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 happened and you have decided to make a claim. If you lose your claim the insurance company will pay your opponent's legal costs and disbursements (expenses).
Basic charges
The amount a solicitor charges for the legal work involved in handling your claim. They are calculated using an hourly rate. These rates may vary depending on the experience of the person doing the work. Your solicitor should 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 added to car insurance and household contents insurance either free or for a small fee. 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 a 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 Agreement (CFA) or 'no win, no 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. But you must still work out how to pay your opponent's costs if you lose.
Damages
The money you win 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, police accident reports and after-the-event insurance premiums. 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, under some after-the-event policies you will have to find a way of paying these costs.
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 or defendant
These are the different terms you may hear used to describe the organisation or person 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, company or some other organisation is to blame (at least partly) for your injuries. An injury need not be physical - you may be able to claim compensation for psychological injury such as shock or upset.
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 CFA will charge you an extra fee on top of their basic charges if you win your case. This is called a success fee. It is a proportion of your solicitor's basic charges and cannot be more than 100 per cent (in other words, it must be no more than the basic fee itself). Your solicitor should explain their success fee before you start your claim. If you win your case, the other side will usually pay most of the success fee. But you may have to pay the rest of it out of your compensation.
