No Win No Fee Injury Claims
No win no fee personal injury claim assessments
Whether you have a good case to make a claim your first consultation for any type of accident claim, medical or professional negligence claim, is completely free of charge. Speak to one of our expert solicitors today.
At the first consultation we will provide a preliminary assessment of your prospects of success and also advise on whether we can take your case on no win no fee. Complete our Enquiry Form to arrange your free, no obligation assessment of your accident claim or telephone 01925 937070.
What does ‘no win, no fee’ mean?
‘No Win, No Fee’ agreements were invented as a means to enable people to pursue cases that they otherwise may not have been able to afford to do.
Solicitors who take cases under Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs) will only be paid if the case succeeds and therefore there is little, if any, risk to the Claimant in pursuing their case. The risk falls onto the solicitor as if the case does not succeed the solicitor will not get paid.
In return for assuming such risk the law recognises that a solicitor is entitled to a success fee if the case succeeds. Indeed, without success fees it is unlikely that solicitors would be able to run cases on a no win no fee basis.
In a successful case the Defendant’s insurance company will pay a Claimant’s basic legal costs, as well as expenses such as Court fees, expert’s reports etc, however the Claimant is responsible for payment of their solicitor’s success fee. In personal injury cases the maximum amount that can be deducted from a Claimant’s damages is 25%, however this differs in other types of cases, for example in no win no fee employment tribunal cases a solicitor can take up to one third of damages as payment of their fee.
Setting the success fee
A solicitor will undertake an assessment of the claim and calculate the risk involved in taking on the case as, unfortunately, not all cases succeed. It is sometimes very difficult, if not impossible, to foresee whether a case will turn out to be more complicated than at first anticipated.
It follows that the success fee is not a one-size-fits-all and so will need to be set by the solicitor based on their experience and assessment of the risks in any particular case.
Success Fee – Deductions from compensation
Unfortunately, it is not possible to say at the beginning of a case exactly how much money will be deducted from the compensation as it depends on what the overall costs are when the case is concluded. The amount of costs will be determined by such things as whether the Defendant admits or denies fault, how detailed and lengthy the investigations into liability (fault) or quantum (the value of the claim) will be, how much – if any – expert evidence is required, whether the Defendant cooperates and whether the level of compensation can be agreed.
However, regardless of how much the costs are at the end of the case, as stated above, the maximum amount which can be deducted from a Claimant’s compensation in respect of the success fee in personal injury cases is limited to 25% (including VAT) but in all other all cases your solicitor should confirm in writing what the success fee is in percentage terms as well as the maximum percentage that will be deducted from your compensation.
Examples where success fee is 25%:-
If compensation is £10,000.00 the maximum amount that could be deducted from your compensation by way of success fee regardless of how much the costs are that have been incurred would be £2,083.33 plus VAT (total £2,500.00).
If compensation was £1,200.00 the maximum would be £250.00 + VAT (total £300.00).
Success fees where the Claimant is under 18 years old
In accident claims where a child is the Claimant (i.e. is under 18 years of age at the time that the case is concluded) some solicitors will charge a lower success fee of 10% – although the policy of this firm is not to take any success fee from a child’s damages.
If you have any queries about success fees telephone 01925 937070 for more information, fill out our Personal Injury Enquiry Form or email Diane Massey at diane@dsmlegal.co.uk.
Other methods of funding
Your solicitor should always enquire of you whether there are other methods of funding your case may be more suitable for you, for example if you are in a Union you may be able to obtain legal advice from the Union solicitors, or if you have legal expense insurance your solicitor should review the policy for you to advise whether this would be a better option for you. It is very rare nowadays to get Legal Aid but it is something that your solicitor should consider.
Sometimes, it may cost less in the long run to pay privately, eg in high value cases where otherwise you could be paying a substantial part of your compensation in success fees. In that case your solicitor will give you details of their costs, including hourly rates and an overall estimate of their costs to the end of your case.
We will always explore all methods of funding with you to ensure that the one we advise you to adopt is the one most suitable for your needs .
