You may think you know what no win no fee means as we hear the term a lot nowadays – whether it be on a television advert, radio advert, or from marketing people stopping you on the street asking whether you have had a slip or trip. The term ‘no win no fee’ may sound fairly simplistic and ‘does what it says on the tin’; but behind this term there may be risks to you. This is why at The Injury Lawyers we like to write these blogs in order to inform and help you make an educated decision as to which law firm is right for you to instruct.
When you instruct a solicitor to take your case on a no win no fee basis they may want you to agree to a no win no fee agreement otherwise known as a Conditional Fee Agreement. These agreements, depending on the solicitor, may be fairly lengthy documents containing a lot of small print; therefore it may be a temptation to simply trust your solicitor and not fully read the document. I must stress how bad this is – whatever the document, you should always read it through thoroughly before agreeing to it.
At The Injury lawyers we are always surprised by some of the agreements which clients who have transferred to us from another firm have agreed to. Some agreements place the client at a high risk of having to pay solicitors costs. When I say costs, this means the cost of the time the solicitor has spent on your claim – this can run into thousands of pounds.
One such risk to look out for before signing an agreement is to check that your lawyer’s costs are restricted. Sometimes solicitors do not get 100% of the costs that they have accrued in the case. Therefore, if their costs are not restricted to what they can get from the other side, they may be able to come to you for the remainder. Therefore, if costs are not restricted, you should ask your solicitor if they can come to you for the balance.
At The Injury Lawyers we work on a genuine no win no fee basis, so our costs, as stated in these agreements, are restricted so we cannot come to you for any of the remaining costs.
