This is how the numbers would have looked for our case.

Actual Verses NO Win NO Fee

The figures below represent what would have happened if we had used NRL and gone to Court.

We would have received $57,062.66 instead of spending $512,925.26 assuming our lawyers would have taken 50% of any damages awarded or of any settlement.

Settling Verses NO Win NO Fee

If however the insurance company’s lawyers had amended their Statement of Defence as soon as they knew that it was incorrect – once the Associate had given them her Brief of Evidence, we would have accepted their final settlement offer three weeks before the case was to be heard and the figures would have looked like this.

We would have received $180,159.37 using NRL instead of spending $4,590.63.

This is why I believe that NRL is a fantastic solution for both lawyers and clients. We would have had $180,159.37 in our bank account and would have been satisfied that justice had been done.

Our lawyers tried their best to get us to accept the offers on the table. They called us into a meeting and drew up everything on a whiteboard and told us how it was. Prior to this they had even written to the other lawyers and laid out the error in their defence plus they had discussed it with them on the phone and in person – they did everything that they could have short of amending the court documents themselves. Gabrielle and I made a decision and put a value of $500,000 on our values and ethics which is the difference between the two scenarios.

We have no ill feelings at all towards our lawyers over the events as they did an incredible job and we won on all points of law.

Because the value of the offers we rejected were greater than the damages we were awarded by the judge we also had to pay the other party's costs from the offer dates onwards.