Legal aid is not normally available for most personal injury cases and the legal fees involved can make hiring a lawyer impossible for most people so most personal injury lawyers will take cases on a no win no fee basis (or Conditional fee agreement).
A solicitor can take a case on a no win no fee basis because if the case is successful then the losing party has to pay the winning sides fees. This ensures that the lawyer gets paid for the work he/she does. The other side is often covered by an insurance policy. On the other hand if the case fails then lawyer does not get paid at all, this is the risk the lawyer agrees to accept when he/she accepts your case.
Just as the person you are claiming against may have to pay your legal fees if you win, you may also have to pay their fees if you lose. Your lawyer will advise you if you are at risk of being made to pay towards the other sides costs and may advise you take out an insurance policy to cover you against these costs. Don’t worry! you will not even have to pay for this policy as we will cover the cost of it for you if you lose.
Some lawyers will try to get their clients to pay for the insurance policy and may even try to get their clients to take out loans to pay for these polices, we will not.
Some solicitors may also seek to take extra fees out of the compensation their clients receive, we will not do this and guarantee you will receive 100% of your awarded compensation.
We will even agree to cover the court fees and can even provide you with an upfront cash payment towards your expected compensation which we will not want back even if your case fails.
Success fees:
You may hear the term “success fee”:
This is like a bonus payment that lawyers receives for the risk involved when taking on a case on a no win fee basis. Currently the “success fee” is based on a percentage of the solicitor’s normal fee. This is currently worked out according to strict rules and until next year the losing party has to pay this. When the requirement of the losing party to pay this is abolished in April 2013 there are some lawyers who have already decided that it will have to paid by the client out of their damages. The new rule is intended to save the insurance companies form having to pay out as much. Howards solicitors has already committed to forgoing the success fee thus ensuring that despite the change in rules you will continue to receive 100% of your compensation.
Find out now if you can make a No win No Fee claim, call 0800 876 6749 e-mail law@howardssolicitors.com.
