No-win-no-fee cases have gained notoriety, but without good reason. It is actually an excellent way of bringing a claim, where you cannot afford to do so privately or do not have legal expenses insurance.

Provided that there is a reasonable prospect of successfully claiming damages against a third party, a no-win-no-fee arrangement (actually called a Conditional Fee Agreement or CFA) would be an entirely appropriate way to proceed.

What this means is that in an appropriate case, we will enter into an agreement with you. The agreement will provide that we will undertake the case for you, and if the case goes to trial (or is abandoned before hand) and you lose, you will pay nothing. We will not charge you, and we will not be paid for our time.

However, for taking the risk that we may be paid nothing, we are entitled to claim a success fee, in the event that we succeed. This means that we will be entitled to charge a premium over and above our base costs of bringing the case for you, up to a maximum 100% on a case that has gone all the way to trial. Depending on the type of case and when it settles, that percentage may be reduced significantly.

However, we only claim the success fee against the Defendant, not against you.

Therefore, if you win, you get all of your damages.

Generally speaking therefore, unless there is a very unusual situation, about which we will advise you before hand, clients can expect to receive the settlement negotiated with the insurer or awarded by the Court.

Therefore, from a Claimant’s perspective, a Conditional Fee Agreement is in fact a very good thing.

In almost all cases, we will advise a Claimant to take out a policy of insurance with the Conditional Fee Agreement, to cover the risk that they may lose. If your claim was to fail, then the Defendant insurers would be entitled to be paid their costs of Defending. The insurance policy would cover those costs, and it would also cover disbursements you incur bringing the claim (for example payments made by us to medical expert, Court, and so forth). The amounts involved can be substantial, so an insurance policy is highly advisable in almost all cases.

With a CFA, the risk is taken by us, and also by the insurer. The insurer will charge a premium, but generally speaking the premium is only payable at the end of the case, and when the claim is successful. It is usually recovered fully from the Defendant.