Banks offer conditional fee agreement boost

The Bank of Ireland has launched an after-the-event insurance scheme believed to be the first to offer solicitors financing for their ongoing costs in personal injury cases.Successful firms which apply to the bank will be granted a line of credit so they can judge their budgets.

Each case that comes in is then assessed by Fastrack indemnity Ltd for its chances of success; those over 51% will be granted up to 3,500 per case.

Meanwhile, Claims Direct has agreed 100 million worth of funding from First National Bank, part of Abbey National.

Every PI claimant will get a loan to buy insurance and be offered an Abbey account to deposit their damages.

Jeremy Fleming