Using a Conditional Fee Agreement
When you decide to make a Personal Injury claim one of the most important things to consider is how to finance the legal fees that will be incurred. Obviously you don't want to win your claim only to discover that a large proportion of your compensation is taken up by your solicitors' fees.
One of the most popular ways of financing legal fees is a Conditional Fee Agreement – commonly known as a 'no win no fee' agreement and most of our Personal Injury clients have Conditional Fee Agreements with us.
If your claim is successful
Under a Conditional Fee Agreement if your claim is successful you are obliged to pay our fees plus any expenses we have incurred, such as fees we have to pay to your doctor to obtain your medical records, and in addition you are obliged to pay us what is known as a success fees which is effectively a 'bonus' designed to reflect the risk that we run of not getting paid if your claim is unsuccessful. However, although you are obliged to pay those sums to us, in the event of your claim being successful we can recover the money from the insurance company who settle your claim so, in effect, you will receive all of your compensation and the insurance company will pay us on top.
What happens if your claim is unsuccessful?
Under a Conditional Fee Agreement if your claim is unsuccessful you are not obliged to pay our fees, hence the 'no win no fee' tag, but you are obliged to pay any expenses we have incurred and, if court proceedings have been issued and your claim is unsuccessful, you may have to pay the other side's legal costs. The way we overcome that difficulty is by arranging an insurance policy on your behalf which will cover our expenses and any legal costs which may be payable to the other side. We are able to arrange insurance policies where the premium is not payable until the end of the case, when it will be paid by the insurance company if your claim is successful, and where the premium is not payable at all if the claim is unsuccessful. By using a Conditional Fee Agreement together with an insurance policy we ensure that if your claim is unsuccessful you do not pay anything at all.
Either way, you pay nothing
In short, by using a Conditional Fee Agreement together with an insurance policy we ensure that if your claim is successful you receive all of your compensation with the insurance company paying our legal costs on top, and if your claim is unsuccessful you pay nothing at all.
