Who are our lawyers?
There is a misconception that if you get work done on a “No Win No Fee” basis that you are not getting a proper lawyer. The lawyers who have subscribed to our service are experienced lawyers who normally charge by the hour just like our lawyers did.
In most cases you will go to their office and sit in the waiting room next to clients who are paying by the hour although COVID 19 has changed the whole dynamic of working from home.
We run our business from home and love it as it gives us far more flexibility. In this case you may meet somewhere for a coffee to discuss your case. Where you meet your Lawyer does not reflect on their ability to handle your case.
Why have the lawyers subscribed to our service?
The lawyers all subscribe to our service because it makes economic sense to invest $5 USD per day to be part of our service. The sad reality is that there is a huge hole in the market which we are filling and that is all of the people and businesses who are not in a financial position to fight the professional who has been negligent.
When you engaged your professional to carry out a task for you, you did so with the expectation that the job would be carried out professionally and properly. Nowhere in the engagement process were you told that you should have additional funds on hand to fight the legal battle with their insurance company when they were negligent.
Just like the international real estate company’s agents whose best friends are their Professional Indemnity Insurance policies, so too are all professionals who rely on their insurance companies to defend their negligent actions.
In all three of the scenerios below there is the same outcome:
- If the professional’s client can’t afford to take any action.
- If the professional’s client runs out of money.
- If the professional’s client accepts a settlement.
There is no case!
We think that Professional Indemnity cover is an important tool for any professional.
We object to professionals who choose to use it as part of their business processes and practices – being negligent and making misrepresentations in the expectation that their customers will not take any action because of the cost involved.
Is settling out of court a valid outcome?
We think that settling instead of going to Court is a valid outcome. We couldn’t ethically settle while our old lawyer’s primary defense was a lie. All that the insurance companies lawyers had to do was change their Statement of Defence as soon as they knew it wasn’t true and we would have been happy. This decision cost us $100,000’s and the lawyers clients were found to have been negligent.
Settling allows you to draw a line and get on with your life. 10 days in High Court is not easy and I had one and a half days in the witness stand where the lawyers were open about testing and questioning my credibility.
Ultimately the choice to settle is yours.
Even though we won our case it would have saved us a lot of time and money had we settled.
What is the hidden cost of negligence?
I developed NRL and the systems, but Gabrielle was the person who wanted me to get NRL to the market because of the actions of the insurance company’s lawyers and also because of all of the horror stories we had heard during the years leading up to our hearing.
We were incredibly fortunate to have Gabrielle’s inheritance to fund us otherwise we would have been bankrupted as the hidden cost everyone ignored was that we still had leases to honour and a business to operate which had lost 50% of its’ income overnight. Unfortunately we had to lay off all of our staff but we still had to deal with the fallout like recalling stock, repaying debtors and keeping the government agencies happy.
We were therefore in the position of having to fund our legal action and financially prop up our business as the business had to exist for it to take an action.
Before our leases expired we purchased a lifestyle block which had a large shed on it which we operate our Air Freshener business from which involves us manufacturing them ourselves.
We now don’t have to pay the three leases which we had – two of which we took so that we could expand the Petcare part of the business and the other to the business Vendor which was a condition of the business purchase. We were unable to claim the full cost of the additional unit leases as we had made no attempt to sub-lease them. There were many units available in our area and the landlord said that while we could sublease the units we were still responsible for all lease payments and any damage caused by them. That was additional stress we didn’t need in our lives plus we still had Petcare stock which required storage as the vendor was denying that there was any issue with them and so we couldn't dispose of them until the issue had been resolved..
Why does membership only cost $5 USD per day?
We decided that our focus was about making the service affordable for lawyers and clients. A cup of coffee is all if costs your lawyer each day to join and we only have one lawyer per 50,000 population.
For $5 USD per day or $1,300 USD per year, your lawyer gets to subscribe to our service. They have received your details and were the first to perform a “clean” conflict of interest check. What’s even better for the lawyer is that they won’t decide on whether to take on your case unless they can perform a full review of the case and give you a written opinion for an agreed fee.
The fee structure means that, when you meet with your lawyer, they are focused on you and your case and not on how many cases they are going to receive that month for their multi $1,000 monthly fee.
As it stands most of your lawyer’s fee is spent on advertising which is how you found out about our service.
Both us and your lawyer are looking to get paid from the settlement we obtain for you.
How much will it cost me to have my case reviewed by my lawyer?
If after your initial meeting, your lawyer thinks you may have a case, it will be up to you and your lawyer to agree a fee for the assessment of your claim. Our assessment cost us $15,000 because we paid for an expert barrister to review the case as well.
The idea of having your lawyer review your matter is that it allows them to look in detail at the claim. Only when they have carried out this exercise are they able to make an informed opinion on your claim.
Your agreement to pay the fee for this assessment is your “skin in the game” and is an important step in setting up the foundation for your legal action.
Remember though that there is no obligation for you to go ahead with this until you agree with your lawyer to do so, however it is a necessary step if you want your lawyer to represent you on a No Win No Fee basis.
The one point that everyone that we spoke to agreed with was that they could all find a way to pay for a full review and written opinion if it meant that they could be represented on a No Win No Fee basis.
Why do I need to have a case review and written opinion carried out?
Only after doing this will your lawyer be in a position to decide whether to take on your case in a No Win No Fee basis. This is a main reason why your lawyers have subscribed to the NRL service.
The lawyers pay us $5 USD per day for the potential opportunity to spend an hour with a potential client, for free, and discuss their case at which point they will be able to assess whether there may be a case.
If they think there may be a case, the client will pay them in full at their normal charge out rate to have them carry out a full review of the case and provide the client with a written assessment.
If your lawyer thinks that you may have a case they will explain their reasoning which they will want to investigate further by reviewing your case and preparing a written opinion. By all means ask questions but please be aware that your lawyer will not represent you unless they can perform this task.
Once the review has been performed your lawyer may choose to take on your case on a No Win No Fee basis but this depends on whether or not you are happy with the terms.
Where are our lawyers based?
Our lawyers are based in the following locations:
How many lawyers do we have in each location?
In each of the cities we operate from we have one lawyer for every 50,000 citizens. Those cities will also service the greater area as well. You’ll find that most of the lawyers are in the city centre as all roads lead there.
There are going to be times where the lawyers can’t perform a “clean” conflict of interest test for a client in which case the client will need to choose another city. Chances are that the travelling time won’t be too long or you may decide to courier or email information to your lawyer and have the initial meeting via the likes of Zoom – especially in COVID times. That’s something you can discuss with your lawyer if the situation arises.
What’s our relationship with the lawyers?
Our lawyers are simply subscribers to a lawyer referral system for which we charge them $5 USD per day or $1,300 USD per year to subscribe to. This allows us to administer and advertise our service. We send your case details to the lawyers in your nominated city so that they can perform conflict of interest checks on the parties of your potential case.
The first lawyer to complete a “clean” test and to accept the case becomes your lawyer.
The photo is of Gabrielle and I after I had been made President of our Rotary Club for the year.
Our relationship with the client
We simply introduce clients to lawyers in their selected cities. Once you have been introduced and “accepted” by a lawyer our relationship ends until you receive a settlement at which point your lawyer advises us of the settlement figure and we will invoice you 2.5% of the settlement amount which your lawyer will pay us on your behalf as a disbursement. Periodically your lawyer will update us as to the status of your case and what an estimated settlement will be, if any, as that is all we need to know.
The relationship between you and your lawyer is yours and the details are confidential between the pair of you.
Can I see who the lawyers are in each city?
No!
The details of our lawyers are confidential and you will only know who your lawyer is if they perform a “clean” conflict of interest check and are the first to “accept” you as a client and agree to meet you for free.
Our lawyers all have traditional “charge by the hour" businesses and so don’t want to alert their existing clients or the public that they do No Win No Fee work.
One of the tenets surrounding their decision to participate in NRL is that they don’t decide to take on your case until they have been paid to review your case and the terms must be agreeable to both of you.
Do the lawyers advertise on the NRL website?
No!
An option for our service was to have the ability for lawyers to advertise within the site but this just favours those with the biggest budgets. We wanted to favour those who were keen and efficient and who would carry on that spirit for you when they represented you.
Most of our lawyers don’t want to advertise that they are part of our service because they already have client bases that are happy to pay by the hour for their services.
By being a subscriber to NRL they get to gain business that previously was not available because victims couldn’t afford legal fees to fight it.
For $5 USD per day the lawyer gets the opportunity to have new business and also gets paid to investigate the case before they decide whether they want to represent the client or not.
What are the fees?
If your new lawyer agrees to review your case, you will then agree on an appropriate fee for their initial review of your claim. This will be payable to the lawyer and does not involve NRL.
If you and your lawyer then agree to proceed with the claim on a No Win No Fee basis the terms of that agreement are also strictly between you and the lawyer. Every country has different rules relating to fees and your lawyer will explain them to you.
Most importantly of all you must both be happy with the terms of the arrangement.
What is the NRL fee?
If you are successful and receive a settlement for your case, Negligence Resolutions Limited will charge you a fee of 2.5% of the total settlement as an administration fee in consideration of our operation of the website.
Your lawyer will inform us of the settlement and we will generate an invoice to you which your lawyer will pay directly to us on your behalf as a disbursement.
Is my first appointment really free?
YES!
We know how the costs can appear to be prohibitive to pursuing a negligence claim and so we’ve arranged for your new lawyer to meet with you for an hour and discuss your case at no cost to you. Your lawyer will be able to make an initial assessment of your situation at the meeting and let you know if they think that you might have a case.
We know the importance of having someone who is an expert in such matters take time to discuss your situation.
You no doubt have had many people giving you advice but at the end of the day you are still left with no certainty as to how to proceed.
If your lawyer thinks that you may have a case and you wish to take it further, then it is at this stage that you may agree with your lawyer that they will review your case and prepare a written opinion for you for an agreed fee.
Can I interview all of the available lawyers?
No!
The system is setup to reward the most efficient lawyers and the ones that perform the conflict of interest checks the fastest will get the most cases.
You are free to interview your lawyer when you meet with them as you need to be happy with your lawyer.
If you are unhappy with your lawyer simply resubmit your case to another city and restart the process.
Remember that our lawyers are all qualified to handle your case which is more important than if you like them.
Am I obligated to use the lawyer that you identify?
Of course not!
Your worst case with using our service is that you waste some time.
Once we provide you with a lawyer’s details, it is up to you to decide whether to contact them to make an appointment.
Even when you meet with them, you only proceed further if you both agree to the further assessment and associated fee.
The purpose of our service is to put in place a process which may be able to help you.
How do I know if my claim will be successful?
All litigation carries risk.
We cannot assure you that you will walk away with a positive result. The steps we have put in place are designed to give you a way to pursue your claim and get expert advice on whether it is worth taking it forward.
We understand that the legal process can be very slow and expensive.
Our goal is to make the process accessible to everyone where the only cost of entry is the cost of having a case fully assessed and then if the lawyer thinks you have a good case and you both agree to proceed, they will represent you on a No Win No Fee basis.
Our advice is to take the time and effort to sit down with a lawyer for free and discuss your situation as they are best placed to advise you on how best you may proceed.
What information do I give my new lawyer?
You can never give your lawyer too much information.
Take along everything that you have got.
Give your lawyers everything and let them decide what is and isn’t relevant to your case.
Above all be honest with your lawyer.
Can I get my new lawyer to do other work for me?
Yes!
Of course you can and the lawyers reward us with nothing for this.
Our new lawyers have been given all of our business.