April 2013 saw the biggest shakeup in years of the personal injury world as the recoverability of certain legal fees has been stopped. This means that most law firms are no longer offering 100% compensation. Before the changes, most law firms for the majority of cases had 100% agreements because lawyers were entitled to recover all reasonable fees directly from the other side. Since the changes, this is no longer the case.
From April 2013, any agreements entered in to mean that the lawyer for the majority of cases cannot recover a Success Fee of an After The Event insurance premium. The Success Fee is part of our costs that helps us to fund No Win, No Fee claims – as we cannot win them all. The insurance premium (abbreviation ATE) is to protect you against having to pay for certain costs, like the opponents costs if something goes south for example.
So it’s not that No Win, No Fee agreements have been abolished – they are still entirely legal, and most law firms, ourselves included, are still operating on a No Win, No Fee basis. The difference now is that we cannot recover all of our fees, so most law firms are now charging the client a percentage for the Success Fee, and asking for payment of the ATE insurance. For most cases though, we are not – and you can still have the opportunity to keep all 100% of your compensation payout.
So don’t panic! No Win, No Fee is still around. The No Win, No Fee agreement simply means that a law firm is prepared to say that they are confident enough in winning your case that they will waive their fees if they don’t win. Operating on a No Win, No Fee basis is about whether we are confident enough in thinking we can win your case. If we felt it was too risky, we wouldn’t operate on a No Win, No Fee basis.
For advice, get in touch and we will see if we can help you out on a No Win, No Fee basis.