Helping You Understand No Win No Fee Claims

No win no fee agreements are correctly known in law terms as a conditional fee agreement. This is a legal agreement between you and your solicitor and is the most popular and easiest way of making a claim for compensation. No win no fee claims mean that people who couldn't afford to claim for compensation before now have the opportunity to make a claim for compensation. This is because before the no win no fee claim was introduced you could only claim for compensation if you could afford to pay legal aid; this legal aid has now been abolished meaning anyone can now put in a claim for compensation.

No win no fee claims make it easier to find a solicitor and means that your solicitor will do everything in their power to make your compensation claim a success; this is because unless your case is a success your solicitor won't get any money. The reason behind this is because the way in which a no win no fee claim works is that if your case is a success you keep 100% of the compensation that you are awarded and your solicitor's fees are claimed from the losing party's insurance company. If your case is however unsuccessful you still have no fees to pay as the winning party's solicitors fees will be taken out of what is known as after even insurance, which is taken out on your behalf; meaning your solicitor doesn't get paid.

When you have suffered an accident you should get in touch with a solicitor as soon as you can after the accident. It should be remembered that a claim for compensation will only be successful if the accident was caused due to the negligence of another person. Negligence is a legal term which is broadly equivalent to disregard, so if an accident occurs entirely as a result of your disregard you will not be able to make a successful claim for compensation. If you are involved in an accident that was caused partly by you and partly by someone else you may be able to make a claim but the amount of compensation you receive will be reduced according to how much you contributed to the accident. This is known as contributory negligence. If, for example, you are found to have contributed to the accident by 15%, your damages will be reduced by 15% to reflect your share of the blame.

To calculate the total amount of compensation that you will receive there are numerous things that will be taken into account such as:

•The severity of your injury
•The extent to which your injured has resulted in long term or permanent disability
•The extent to which your injury has disrupted your life

There is no set time for how long it will take to settle your compensation claim; this can sometimes depend on if the other party is denying liability or they make a compensation claim offer that is too low. If aspects such as these take place your case by end up going to court to be settled, which can take up to a year.