No Win No Fee
A no win no fee agreement is one under which a solicitor only receives a fee if the claim for compensation succeeds.
This type of fee arrangement was only introduced in the UK a few years ago but it has become the most common method of funding personal injury claims. Most of the people we help have their claims taken forward on this basis.
Many compensation claims are settled without going to court but it is important to understand that, if your case does go there and you lose, you will have four potential heads of liability:-
- your opponent’s legal fees
- your opponent’s other expenses
- your own expenses (other than legal fees)
- your own legal fees
By having your solicitor act for you on a no win no fee basis, you would not have any liability under number 4 above. Your potential liability under numbers 1 to 3 could be covered by before the event insurance or after the event insurance.
Clearly, your solicitor would be taking a commercial risk by agreeing to take your claim forward under a no win no fee arrangement. In recognition of that risk, your agreement would entitle your solicitor to receive an uplift in his/her normal fee if your claim is successful. That uplift is usually referred to as a “success fee”.
In England, a success fee can be recovered from the losing party but in Scotland we have different rules. Here, successful claimants normally use part of their compensation to pay any of their fees and other costs that can’t be recovered from the losing party (including the success fee). If you opt to use a no win no fee agreement in relation to your claim, it is important that a limit is negotiated with your solicitor on how much of your compensation can be used to pay for these fees and other costs and that is something we’ll help you with.
If you’re unsure which is the appropriate funding arrangement for your no win no fee compensation claim in Scotland, call us now on 0333 900 0333 to discuss how we can help or simply fill in the CALL ME box & we’ll ring you. Alternatively, you can start your no win no fee claim immediately by answering a few simple questions on the CLAIM NOW page and we’ll do the rest.
Remember – Your Scottish no win no fee compensation claim is best dealt with by Scottish specialists and you won’t pay a penny for our help, whatever happens.
