Are
you seeking a “no win no fee” compensation
for an injury sustained as a result of a road
accident, negligence or a criminal act?
Whatever your claim, making sure you have a
specialist “no win no fee” solicitor
working on your case is essential in winning
the damages you are entitled to receive under
UK law. There are many claims solicitors on the
Internet so choosing the right representative
can be daunting. There are however several important
considerations to take on board before contacting
any firm. The first and most important of these
factors is whether your solicitor offers their
clients a no win no fee agreement. Most injury
solicitors operate on a no win no fee basis
so that you do not lose any of the compensation
you are entitled to.
Under UK law, the third party in any injury
case is liable for your legal fees so you should
never have to pay any charges in order to recover
monies owed to you. There are many circumstances
in which you can claim damages under UK law,
none of which require you to pay for assistance,
which is why it's so important to check you are
entering into a no win no fee contract with
any solicitor. Once you are sure you have a no
win no fee agreement with your chosen representative,
make sure your solicitor is a specialist in the
injury area you are seeking compensation for.
If any solicitor you contact does not offer the
no win no fee agreement do not assign them your
case and explain clearly why you will not be
using their services.
Generally speaking, injury solicitors have a
specific area of injury types they work with,
which can vary from road accident to accidents
at work. Unlike larger companies who deal in
all sorts of claims case no matter what the circumstances,
a specialist firm will assign a representative
who deals only in that area. A no win no fee
specialist solicitor will also work hard to take
your case to court and not aim to settle out
of court. This is because the law seeks to make
sure that the third party responsible for any
injury takes full responsibility for the occurrence.
Ultimately this may mean, for example, that
a company has to reassess their Health and Safety
risk assessments for employees or that a council
who has been negligent in road repairs has to
undertake road works to ensure safety. This kind
of result is the aim of the injury law, as well
as to get you appropriate damages for any injury
and loss of earnings incurred, on a no win no
fee basis.
As the injured party you should also be entitled
to 100% of any compensation awarded. Some solicitors
take a portion of your award at the end of the
case so make sure that you not only get all of
the money you are entitled to but also that your
no win no fee solicitor doesn't have any nasty
surprises lined up for out of pocket costs at
the end of the case.
Do you pay attention to TV? If so, you'll have noticed a surge of adverts in recent times depicting people having accidents. They fall off ladders, slip on wet floors, etc, but they end up with smiles on their faces, because of a no win no fee arrangement.
A no win no fee arrangement, sometimes also known as a conditional fee arrangement, means simply that if the case is not won in court, then you don't have to pay anything. No win no fee has an obvious attraction for many. If you do win, it's usual for you to receive 100% of the claimed compensation.
So, how does the solicitor or bureau get paid? They get paid by the third party who is compensating for the accident. If you lose the case, there is usually an insurance policy involved that will cover their costs and time. For you, no win no fee means exactly what it says.
The arrangement of no win no fee for personal accidents has only been available since 1995, and was then only in certain cases in England and Wales. Three years later no win no fee was extended to all civil cases, though family court action was an exception.
The idea of making no win no fee arrangements widely available was to finally include the thousands of people who fall in between the very rich and the very poor. The rich can afford legal action and the poor can get legal aid. No win no fee allowed the people who are not so rich, but not so poor either, to have a fighting chance.
In the year 2000, things improved dramatically for those seeking no win no fee arrangements. The Access to Justice Act came into force, which allowed judges to make the losing side of a case shoulder the so-called uplift fees. These are fees charged by solicitors in addition to the compensation to offset a loss situation, as well as the insurance premiums guarding against legal costs in the case of defeat.
In addition to this, legal aid was abolished in personal injury cases. This often meant that people making personal injury claims only had the no win no fee arrangement as their best hope for a satisfactory settlement.
There has been some concern voiced about no win no fee arrangements in the popular press, especially the tabloids. They often claim that solicitors heavily inflate their fees, using the situation to their advantage to get rich.
This is not true. Solicitors lose cases too, and then they often do little better than cover their costs. The no win no fee arrangement is a double-edged sword and the press are usually very selective about what they report. On the other hand, no win no fee has given thousands of people a chance of compensation without having to worry about how their cases will be paid.
The no win no fee arrangement exists for personal injury accident claims where the accident and the resultant injury was not the person's fault. Compensation in a no win no fee arrangement can cover suffering and pain, losses that can be directly attributed to the accident, such as the loss of earnings, and the cost of repairs, as well as certain other situations.
