At first glance you may think you know what no win no fee means. But when it comes down to a situation when you have had an accident and it was not your fault, and you really think about the term, there may be a few questions which you may have.
Many of our clients upon approaching The Injury Lawyers with a potential claim ask questions such as:
How do you get paid if I win my case?
How do you get paid if I lose my case?
Are there any situations where I may have to pay something?
I will now address many of the answers to these questions in this blog post.
If you have had an accident which was not your fault and you have suffered an injury you may be entitled to bring a claim for compensation. It is advisable to seek out an injury lawyer who will work on a genuine no win no fee basis as this reduces the risk to yourself. Now, in a genuine no win no fee agreement such as our agreement, if a claimant wins their case they get 100% of their compensation; and 100% really means 100%. You are entitled to be fully compensated for your injuries and suffering – if the solicitor took a proportion of it, this would not be the case. The solicitor, when a case is won, claim their costs (price of his/her time spent on your case) separately from the other side. The difference with us is that we limit our fees to whatever we recover from the other side; so we cannot charge you for a successful claim.
If your case is unsuccessful, solicitors usually have an ‘after the event’ insurance policy in place which covers any disbursements (items paid out on your behalf) they have made on your claim so you should not have to pay for anything.
Upon signing up to a solicitor on a no win no fee basis you will usually be asked to agree to that firm’s Conditional Fee Agreement. This is the agreement which sets out the terms of the no win no fee arrangement. This must be read extremely carefully, especially for the parts that refer to the solicitor’s costs. It is advisable to check the solicitors costs are restricted to what they can recover so they cannot come to you for any of the remainder.
At The Injury Lawyers we work under a genuine no win no fee agreement and our costs are restricted to what we get from the other side.
