A majority of personal injury cases in the UK are funded through a conditional fee agreement that’s known as the “no win, no fee” agreement. If you’re worried about the costs associated with personal injury solicitors, then you’ll want to learn more about this agreement.
Putting the “no win, no fee” agreement in fundamental terms, it’s basically an agreement between a personal injury solicitor and their client that means that if the solicitor can’t win your case that you won’t have to pay them for any of the work that they’ve done. Should your solicitor be able to win your case, they’ll be paid through the defendant’s insurance company in most cases. Know that you might have to pay if you’ve misled your injury solicitor about anything surrounding your personal injury case.
With every “no win, no fee” case, personal injury solicitors will completely assess your case to see how likely it is that they’ll be able to win your case. If you have a legal expense policy included with your insurance, this can be used to pay for any legal advice that you might need. In most cases, you’ll be able to use that legal expense policy instead of the “no win, no fee” agreement. Your personal injury solicitor should check on this before they agree to take on your case.
With all “no win, no fee” cases, the personal injury solicitors are the ones who will saddle all of the risk since they won’t receive payment if they don’t win the personal injury case. As a way to reimburse themselves for the risk, injury solicitors are allowed to claim a success fee, which is taken care of by the defendant’s insurance company instead of the solicitor’s client.
The law in the United Kingdom dictates that if a personal injury case is ever lost that they losing party will be responsible for taking care of the legal fees. To make sure that their clients don’t have to pay for any court fees, personal injury solicitors will have an “after the event” insurance policy that’s only active once the personal injury case has actually begun. This special insurance policy is a way to protect the client should their case be lost. Just like the legal fees, the “after the event” insurance won’t have to be paid until the end of the case. The premium actually insures itself since no payment is necessary if the personal injury case is lost. The special insurance policy will also handle court fees and medical expenses that injury solicitors have to pay, but only if the case is lost. If the case is won, those fees will still be paid by the defendant’s insurance company.
Whenever you first approach personal injury solicitors about a “no win, no fee” agreement, they’ll first determine whether or not you actually have a personal injury case. If they feel that they have a strong chance of winning your case, they’ll more than likely proceed with the claim. “No win, no fee” agreements are a good way to weed out reputable injury solicitors from the ones who might be a waste of your time.