The principle of a No Win, No Fee agreement should always be that the accident victim pays nothing if the claim doesn’t win. But there are some lawyers out there who will land you with a bill if the case is lost, and thanks to some legal fee reforms from last year, you may have to pay upfront fees as well.
So here is an explanation of what you should look for and what solicitors may still charge you if the claim doesn’t win.
What is a No Win, No Fee Agreement?
The proper name for the agreement that encompasses the terms of a No Win, No Fee is commonly called the Conditional Fee Agreement. This should also outline your liability to pay if the claim is successful as well.
The idea behind a No Win, No Fee is to ensure that an accident victim is not left with a huge legal bill if the claim doesn’t succeed. In many cases, we simply cannot know if your claim will win unless we actually spend time and money pursuing it. We must make a business decision to take the risk of the case on and decide if it is worth our time and effort given that we may not get paid.
If we think there is a good enough chance of winning the claim, we can offer a No Win, No Fee agreement. If we are not confident enough that we can win, I expect we’d not offer you such an agreement.
What Might a Lawyer Charge Me?
Firstly, ours is genuine – so when we say you pay nothing if the claim loses, we mean it. Of course, this is subject to you cooperating and adhering to the agreement; but so long as you do, you can rest easy in the knowledge that you won’t be landed with a surprise bill if the case doesn’t succeed.
But some lawyers may not cover everything in their No Win, No Fee agreement. With some, you may still face charges. These could be general legal fee charges, or perhaps more commonly disbursements. A disbursement is something a lawyer pays out on your behalf for the case with the belief that the cost of this can be recovered from the other side. If the claim doesn’t win, we cannot recover such things. As a result, you can be liable for them.
To cover you against the risk of having to pay such things, your solicitor might buy a policy of After The Event insurance. This insurance can cover things like disbursements that we cannot recover from the opponent. But if this is the case, you may still end up being liable for the insurance premium. If the case wins, the premium for most people isn’t recoverable anymore thanks to the changes from April 2013. As such, some people face one of two costly situations:
- You pay for the insurance which covers the disbursements
- Your lawyer doesn’t take out the insurance as the cost cannot be recovered if the claim wins, meaning you may be liable to pay the disbursements that cannot be recovered
What’s the Cost?
Insurance premiums are typically in the few hundred pound range, and they are generally more expensive if the case is riskier. A premium for a claim against the council could be five times more than that of one for a road accident claim.
If you face being liable for disbursements, then the typical ones for most simple claims may be:
- The cost of a medical report – ranging between £200 – £500 or so
- The cost of access to your medical records – usually no more than £50
- The cost of physiotherapy – typically up to £500 or so in most simple cases
The above is just a general guideline. But don’t be put off – there is another way.
Risk Free Claiming with The Injury Lawyers
We work in a different way which means our No Win, No Fee does exactly what it says on the tin. We don’t take out insurance, meaning you don’t pay for a premium. But then we act as an insurer, meaning we cover you in the same way an insurer does. So you are insured, without having to pay for a premium.
You may have worked out that this simply means we foot the bills for things we cannot recover if we don’t win – so why are we prepared to do that when most other lawyers won’t?
Simple:
- We’re very good at what we do as we specialise in claiming for personal injury – that means we have a high success rate
- We take on and win larger volumes of cases than many other law firms – meaning we can afford to cover our clients for certain risks
- We have write off facilities with our medical agencies – meaning they pay for the medical bills we don’t recover instead of us
The last one there is perhaps the most important one – we cover you, but the risk of us actually having to pay anything is very slim. So we’re happy to do it. Our No Win, No Fee really does mean that you are not charged if the claim doesn’t win.
For more info, call us on 0800 634 75 75 today.
