No Win No Fee Personal Injury Claims

No Win No Fee – also known as a conditional fee agreement (CFA) – is an agreement between you and your solicitor which means you won’t have to pay their fee if they don’t win your case. This means that you don’t pay any costs upfront – once your solicitor takes on your case, you’ll only need to pay them if you win compensation.

Legal aid hasn’t been available for personal injury claims since the year 2000 – instead, it was replaced by No Win No Fee.

Legal aid is funding from the government which helps people to pay for legal costs so that they can get a fair hearing. Although this is no longer possible for personal injury cases, it can be used for other legal cases such as medical negligence involving children.

In order to be able to receive legal aid, you have to prove that you can’t afford to pay for legal representation on your own.

When you make a personal injury claim, most solicitors will help you make your claim on a No Win No Fee basis. There are some rare exceptions to this, but if this applies to your case, they’ll let you know before starting your claim and will talk you through the other options available.

No Win No Fee solicitors will be able to handle most of the claim on your behalf, leaving you with the time to concentrate on recovering from your injury. They’ll keep you up-to-date with any progress and will be on-hand to give you help and advice if you need it.

Most types of personal injury claims can be made on a No Win No Fee basis. The main requirement is that someone has to be at fault for your injury, regardless of whether it happened whilst you were at work or in a public space.

Some examples of accidents you can make a No Win No Fee claim for include:

• Accidents at work
• Road Traffic Accidents
• Medical negligence claims
• Slips, trips and falls
• Serious injury
• Fatal accidents
• Criminal Injuries

If you win your case, your solicitor will take a small percentage fee from the compensation you’re awarded, but this is agreed between you before they begin work on your case – in most cases it will be up to 25% of the money you receive. There are no hidden fees – the main priority is to make sure you get the money you need for your recovery, so you don’t need to worry about all your compensation being taken up by legal fees and solicitors’ costs.

If you don’t win, you won’t need to pay your solicitor. This removes any financial risk to you when making a personal injury claim. They’ll take out what is known as ATE insurance, which covers your legal fees if you lose your claim. ATE insurance covers costs and expenses paid out on your behalf including expert reports, barristers’ fees and court fees.

If you lose your case, you’ll usually need to pay at least a proportion of the other party’s legal costs. However, ATE insurance also covers this for you, so it adds another layer of financial protection.

Some cases are abandoned part way through a claim; for instance, it may become apparent following expert evidence that the chances of you winning your claim are far lower than first thought. ATE insurance will also cover the legal fees and costs already incurred if your case is dropped.

Termination fees may apply if your case doesn’t proceed because you don’t cooperate fully with your solicitor by:

• Deliberately misleading your solicitor,
• Failing to attend a court hearing, or
• Not going to a medical/expert examination

This fee will be based on time spent on your claim, but you don’t need to worry about it as long as you comply with the things that your solicitor asks you to do.

To find out whether you could make a no win no fee claim, you can speak to a trained legal adviser for free on 0800 234 6438, or enter your name and phone number into one of the contact forms on this page and they’ll call you back. Generally, it’s likely you could claim if:

• Your accident happened in the last three years
• It was somebody else’s fault

But we know it can sometimes be difficult for you to tell who’s responsible for your injury, so we recommend getting in touch with a legal adviser for assistance.

Some people have no other funding options to help them make a compensation claim, which is why most injury solicitors take claims on a no win no fee basis. However, you might find that you do have other funding options without realising – for example:

• You can check your household insurance policy – you may find it includes legal expenses insurance which will cover some or all of a personal injury claim
• You may have trade union funding if your accident happened at work – check the terms to see whether trade union insurance cover is included for personal injury claims and on what terms

Sometimes there’s a shortfall in the amount you’ll be covered for, so it’s worth double checking how much is available. Again, your solicitor can talk you through whether this provides enough cover and, if not, what your options are. In some cases, No Win No Fee can be used to make up the shortfall.

Yes, you can. In some cases, the injured person is unable to make a compensation claim because they’re too young; or they might be so seriously injured that they’re mentally incapable of giving instructions and understanding what’s happening. In these cases, the next of kin or another close relative can make a claim on their behalf. No Win No Fee is available in the exactly the same way as any other injury claim.

Your solicitor can talk you through the process of claiming on somebody’s behalf, but in some cases, they’ll need the injured person’s consent to start the process.

For more information, and to find out whether you could make a claim, you can speak to an expert legal adviser on 0800 234 6438. If you decide to go ahead with your claim, they’ll be able to put you in touch with a solicitor who can take you through the next steps.