Fundamental Dishonesty

The term ‘fundamental dishonesty’ was introduced to personal injury claims in April 2013.

It was the result of sweeping changes to the funding of claims, meaning that if a Defendant is to enforce an order for costs to be paid by a Claimant after defeating a claim for personal injury, such a finding now needs to be made by the Court against the Claimant.

Such allegations have almost become routine for Defendants and are made worse by the fact that Defendant need not even plead such an allegation, or put you on notice they are intend to make such an allegations.

If the Court makes such a finding against you, it means that the Defendant has established one of the exceptions to Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (QOCS) (link to CPR 44.16 on gov site).

In practice, and translated to what that means in real terms, following a finding of fundamental dishonesty the Court will order you to pay the Defendant’s costs and you will be legally required to make any such payment. A failure to pay can result in the Defendant enforcing those costs and would have serious financial consequences.

It is not uncommon in personal injury cases for a Defendant to seek to set aside the Claimant’s Notice of Discontinuance and pursue a claim for fundamental dishonesty. The major reason behind this (though not necessarily the only reason) is to obtain a costs order against the Claimant, which could be you.

Without causing panic or fear, this type of accusation is serious and we at Nexus Legal Claims highly recommend that if you are facing such issues that you seek professional legal assistance regardless of whether that is with us, another solicitor or a barrister. We firmly believe that any assistance must be sought as soon as practicable as the best way to defend against such allegations is to prepare early.

You can contact us using our free very simple no obligation contact form and one of us will be in touch to discuss your situation further as soon as possible.