Some people are quite suspicious about no win, no fee claims. While few things in life are free, there is no catch when it comes a no win, no fee personal injury claim. The system has been designed to ensure everybody has access to the courts and can claim compensation, regardless of how much money they have.
No upfront legal fees
In most types of civil court proceedings, you are expected to pay for your own solicitor. While you can often recover these costs if you win a case, with a no win, no fee personal injury claim, you won’t have to pay solicitor anything if your case is lost. This is because the solicitor will usually take out insurance to cover any costs incase the claim is lost. If the claim is successful, your solicitor may take a fee out of the compensation you are awarded, but this is limited to 25% at the most.
100% compensation
Since April 2013, most injury solicitors no longer offer a 100% compensation clause for any claims they take on. This is because of a change to the law governing no win no fee claims. Injury lawyers can no longer claim their success fee from the losing side, so it is now taken from any compensation which is awarded, up to a maximum of 25%.
Court costs
In some rare incidences, you may be eligible to pay court costs if you lose the case. However, this rarely happens. Your injury lawyer will not advise you to proceed if he or she isn’t confident that the case will be successful. After all, if you lose your claim for damages, the solicitor won’t be paid, and nobody likes to work for nothing.
