No Win No Fee - A Brief Explanation

If you’re thinking of making a personal injury claim for an accident you’ve been in, then you should definitely check the possibility of a no win no fee claim. A no win no fee claim is one where your solicitor is paid only if you win the case and that too not out of your pockets. In the case of a victory and compensation, the solicitor’s fees will be paid by the defendant’s insurance company. If you don’t win, the solicitor gets nothing. Thus, this gives you an even bigger advantage to claim personal injury compensation – since you will get to keep 100% of the money you receive.

It is important to take the advice of a solicitor or a law firm that deals specifically with personal injury claims and check if your claim can be handled on a no win no fee basis. Because the firm or the solicitor stands to lose a good deal of money of his argument doesn’t hold up in court, no solicitor will take on a claim case on a no win no fee basis if he doesn’t think you have a good chance of winning.

Before the no win no fee system came along, cases seeking compensation were dealt through legal aid. In 2000, the Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) came along, which is now known as ‘no win no fee’. CFA made it very easy for people of meager financial means to claim compensation for personal injury. Thus, if you’re holding back from making a personal injury claim because you’re afraid it will be expensive, the CFA makes it extremely easy for you to take compensation where it is rightly due. All it takes now is filling up a form with details of the accident. The rest of the work is taken care of by the solicitor.

When your claim is eligible to be addressed on a no win no fee basis, it is essential to have an ‘after event insurance’. This insurance needs to be taken before you can put in the paperwork for a no win no fee basis claim. In the event that you lose the case, this insurance takes care of the fees of the defendant’s solicitor. (Just like the defendant’s insurance company would take care of your solicitor’s fees, if the defendant were to lose) However, like solicitors, insurance company will also only cover those claims that they think have a good chance of winning. Thus, if your insurance company refuses to provide you with such cover, it may mean that your case is not strong enough, and you may want to rethink the entire claim.

Although a no win no fee claim does mean you don’t have to pay the solicitor’s fees, it doesn’t mean that it will be entirely free. You will still have to incur some expenses related to the case. However, the advantage is that once you receive the compensation, it’s all yours.