OK – so I’ve been doing this for a while, and I know exactly how it works. So it should come as little surprise to me when I ask accident victims what they understand of the No Win No Fee system before I move forward to explaining it.
Yet I do still find myself slightly surprised to learn that most people still think there is a deduction from your compensation for a winning claim with any firm. This probably stems from the term No Win No Fee itself; it tells you there is no fee for a lost claim, but it tells you nothing about what happens if it wins?
The common questions:
Q: “What percentage of my claim do you take?”
Q: “How much is it to claim?”
The Injury Lawyers Answer: Nothing. Ever.
There are law firms out there who will charge you a percentage of your compensation, or deduct a monetary amount for your claim. But you don’t have to go with those firms! In fact, my advice is to avoid them!
Why? Because there are firms like us here at The Injury Lawyers who will not charge you for a successful claim. Always choose your own independent lawyer to avoid the chance of a middleman taking a cut from your claim and you ending up with less compensation than you deserve. Avoid claims / accident management companies, or insurers referring solicitors to you. The cut these middlemen will take either comes from your payout or leaves you with a cash-strapped solicitor thanks to them wasting a proportion of their budget on buying your claim.
What you need to get is your very own independent firm of expert personal injury lawyers operating on a Genuine No Win No Fee basis.
So – are there any differences between No Win No Fees that could mean you get less than 100% compensation? There are; and this is the key element you need to look out for. It’s all related to what is in the agreement about what happens if you win your claim.
Standard No Win No Fee – Not Always 100% Compensation
With a proper personal injury lawyer, you should always get 100% of your compensation, and there should never be any deductions, and there should never be any hidden charges. Unfortunately I have to say “should” because it all depends on the wording of the No Win No Fee agreement you enter in to.
Most standard No Win No Fee agreements state that your solicitor will only seek to recover their legal fees from the other side. This means that, if they fail to get them back, they could charge you any outstanding amount. Most reputable lawyers would not use this hidden power to their advantage; but the fact remains that, if they wanted to, they could charge you. And some firms will…
Real Genuine No Win No Fee
A Genuine No Win No Fee is different. The Genuine version means that you cannot be charged for a successful claim. The reason all comes down to the wording. A Genuine No Win No Fee agreement should state:
- If your claim is successful, we expect to recover all our fees from your opponent.
- If, for any reason, we are unable to recover our fees from your opponent, we shall NOT look to recover the fees from you.
- There are certain chargeable items of correspondence with you which are never recoverable from your opponent; we shall not seek the fees for these from you.
- If your claim is unsuccessful, we shall charge no fees.
It’s quite easy to understand isn’t it? The above literally means that your lawyers will not seek to recover any fees from you: ever. Because of this, it means your lawyers cannot charge you – even if they wanted to.
The only way you should ever be liable for any costs is if you cancel your claim without good reason, you become uncooperative / unresponsive, or if you fail to follow the advice of your specialist lawyer when it comes to any professional advice given to you that could cause costs to be incurred. These are all fair elements of course; and a good lawyer would never expect you to end up doing any of those.
So – the other common questions we are asked:
Q: “Who pays for your fees if I win?”
The Answer: the other side. If we don’t get any or all of our fees back, we cannot charge you for them.
Q: “Who pays for your fees if I lose?”
The Answer: No one unfortunately! We only take on a claim if we think it has a good chance of winning; we therefore agree to take the risk of your case on.
So – 100% with a proper lawyer on a Genuine No Win No Fee basis really does mean 100%. Just make sure you read the agreement before you enter in to it.
For more advice, feel free to get in touch.
