Funding for cerebral palsy claims

Is funding available for cerebral palsy compensation claims?

We offer a full range of funding options to help parents of children with cerebral palsy make a birth injury or neonatal injury claim for compensation. These include Legal Aid, ‘no win no fee’ or conditional fee agreements (CFA), and other methods, such as legal expenses insurance.  We never seek payment directly from families for us to investigate their child’s cerebral palsy claim.

We provide clear, straightforward and personalised advice to each family about the different methods of funding that are available to them, and about which type of funding is best for their child’s cerebral palsy claim.

What does it cost to start a cerebral palsy claim for my child?

We do not charge our client families for our preliminary investigations and advice about their potential claim. Our funding options mean that the claim can be investigated and brought without any financial cost or risk to the family. If we advise the family to pursue the claim, we ensure that they and their child’s future compensation are protected from liability for legal fees.  Our specialist cerebral palsy solicitors always act and advise in the best interests of the injured child. We do not charge ‘success fees’ for birth and neonatal brain injury claims involving children with cerebral palsy.

Can I get Legal Aid for a cerebral palsy compensation claim?

Legal Aid is available for birth injury and neonatal brain injury claims for children with cerebral palsy or serious neurological disability.  This includes claims for long-term physical and neurodevelopmental disability caused by hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy or HIE brain injury, kernicterus, early onset meningitis and other neonatal infections, hypoglycaemia and birth-related traumatic brain injury.

Only a small number of solicitors are accredited by the Legal Aid Agency to act for clients using Legal Aid funding. Our specialist clinical negligence team have a contract with the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) which allows us to represent children and teenagers in cerebral palsy claims, funded by Legal Aid.

Legal Aid is means tested, but the financial application for Legal Aid only takes the child’s own finances into account. This means that most children with cerebral palsy brain injury are financially eligible to apply for Legal Aid. However, depending on the complexity and individual needs of the case, Legal Aid may not always be the best option for the child.

In cases where Legal Aid provides the best funding option for the child, we help the family apply for Legal Aid.

Can I make a cerebral palsy claim on a no win no fee basis?

Conditional fee agreements (CFA) allow us to act in medical negligence claims for our clients on a ‘no win no fee’ basis. This means that our client pays nothing before or during the claim. They also pay nothing if the claim is unsuccessful. 

If we win the claim, NHS Resolution (representing the defendant NHS trust or doctor in the claim) pays the majority of the legal costs, as well as the compensation we have secured for our client. Under the rules which govern conditional fee agreements, a CFA (no win no fee) agreement allows the solicitor to charge their client an additional ‘success fee’ which is paid from the compensation if they win the case. The success fee is calculated as a percentage of the solicitor’s time charge.

Boyes Turner’s clinical negligence team does not charge a success fee for cases involving children with cerebral palsy, severe physical and/or neurological disability from HIE, kernicterus, hypoglycaemia and other kinds of birth or neonatal brain injury. Our success fee in these cases is always 0%.

Can I use my Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI) to pay for a cerebral palsy claim?

Legal Expenses Insurance or LEI can sometimes contribute to the costs of investigating and starting a claim, but rarely provides enough financial cover and protection for families to complete a complex cerebral palsy birth injury or neonatal brain injury claim. If the child’s family have the benefit of LEI or another potential source of legal expenses funding which they are considering using to finance their child’s claim, we ask to see the policy documents and then advise the family on the child’s funding options, including their LEI insurance. 

Can I use my own money to pay my solicitor to make a cerebral palsy claim? 

We do not advise clients to finance their child’s birth injury or neonatal brain injury claim without the benefit of an insurance-backed CFA, LEI or Legal Aid funding.

The information set out above is only a summary of funding options. We provide every client family with full and personalised advice about the potential costs and risks of their child’s cerebral palsy claim and the funding options that are available to them.