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Victims of no-win, no-fee rip-offs get right to claim compensation from lawyers after court ruling

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Victims ripped off by “no-win, no-fee” lawyers will be able to claim compensation from them under a landmark court ruling.

A High Court has ruled in favour of a woman who was overcharged by her lawyers after seeking compensation for injuries after a moped where she was a pillion passenger was hit by a car.

The judge in Leeds ruled Darya Belsner’s lawyers had not properly explained the likely costs  to her which prevented her giving informed  consent to be charged in the way that she was.

Ms Belsner was awarded £1,916.98 but the solicitors took a success fee of £385.50.

Surprised by the cost, Ms Belsner hired Checkmylegalfees.com to challenge her bill, leading to the hearing in Leeds high court against her lawyers CAM Legal Services, trading under the name Scooters and Bikes Legal.

The judge, Mr Justice Lavender, ordered that her lawyers must pay her back £295.50 after failing to properly explain the likely costs to her.

The importance of the case for setting a legal precedent was underlined by the fact that the two law firms spent nearly £90,000 combined in arguing over the £385.50 success fee.

Mr Justice Lavender said: “No doubt similar issues could arise in many other cases.  Consequently, the parties appear to attach considerable importance to this appeal.

“According to their statements of costs, the Claimant and the Defendant have spent £52,575.63 and £35,139.70 respectively on this appeal.  That is a total of £87,715.53, which is over 225 times the amount of £385.50 originally at issue.”

Legal costs analyst Mark Carlisle, of CheckMyLegalFees.com, said: ‘‘For too long legal firms have been using these complicated success fee models that their clients have not had properly explained and do not understand. This was why it was so important that we won this case and create a legal precedent.”

CAM Legal Services said it would be seeking permission to appeal. Practice Manager Darren Draper said: “We genuinely believe [the judge] was wrong to ignore the fact that we, as a firm, did ultimately cap all of our unrecovered charges to £385.50 - a charge which was capped at 25 per cent of her compensation.”