No win, no fee. Any accident claims solicitor worth their salt now will have this phrase tagged onto any advertising campaign they use to promote their services. But what exactly does that mean?



It's common knowledge that taking legal action to pursue a compensation claim is stressful, time consuming and very expensive. It can be even more expensive if the claim is disputed. The saying goes that any man who represents himself has a fool for a client. So qualified and experienced legal representation is a must when tackling an accident compensation claim. In the past, it was extremely expensive to pursue these claims all the way through the courts, but the advent of no win, no fee representation has made claiming much easier. Surely, though, solicitors need to be paid for their services?

Of course they do - "no win, no fee" ensures that the solicitor gets paid for the work that they do, whilst the claimant gets 100% of the compensation awarded. One of the main principles of English law is that the loser of a case pays both their own legal costs and the costs of the winner. In a "no win, no fee" situation, the solicitor will agree not to charge the client anything unless the claim is won. So if you are involved in a "no win, no fee"” case, then the risk is that if you lose, you will pay the court costs plus the legal costs of the other side.

The best way to protect yourself against this is to take out insurance to cover these costs. There are two types of insurance that can cover this eventuality – 'After the Event' (ATE) insurance and 'Before the Event' (BTE) coverage. BTE insurance is often included in things like general house insurance, but ATE insurance can be taken out separately, when you know that your case is going to court. ATE insurance will cover court costs and legal costs for the other side should you lose the case. In this kind of case solicitors will probably take out their own ATE insurance as well, as a matter of standard practice.

Not all "no win, no fee" arrangements are the same. It doesn't always mean, either, that if you don't win, there still won't be any costs. In the majority of cases, Legal Aid (now replaced by The Legal Services Commission) is not available for personal injury claims. This is what has encouraged the growth of "no win, no fee" arrangements, enabling people to pursue claims which otherwise would have been financially prohibitive, using the "no win, no fee" principle to finance the case. This is often referred to as a 'Conditional Fee Arrangement'. With "no win, no fee" cases, the solicitor will often only take the case on if they think that there is a reasonable chance of success. Under the CFA arrangement, they will then make no charge until the case is settled. If you win, then the solicitor will then charge a 'success fee', which in some cases can be as much as 40% of the total settlement. The purpose of the 'success fee' is to compensate the solicitor for the cases that they take on that they lose and receive no payment of their legal costs.

When you use "no win no fee" solicitors now instead of taking a 'success fee' from your compensation award, solicitors are recovering their costs and success fees from the losing side's insurance company. This means that the person making the claim really does receive 100% of the compensation awarded, with no fees to pay at all. The solicitor gets paid, everyone is happy. "No win no fee" compensation for personal accident claims is now easier and less stressful than before. Talk to an experienced personal injuries solicitor for more information.