What does 'no win no fee' actually mean?

Nearly everyone has heard the oft-repeated advertising phrase - no win no fee. Daytime adverts for claims solicitors are filled with this catchphrase, so is it just a clever marketing ploy or does the phrase actually have a genuine meaning?

Under a no win no fee agreement a claims solicitor or specialist legal expert will take on your case on the understanding that if you lose your claim they will not charge you for their services. However, it is important to remember that solicitor's fees are not the only costs involved in a legal action. If you lose your case you may still have to pay your opponent's legal bills and your own and your opponent's 'disbursements', which covers other expenses or charges such as fees for expert witnesses or medical evaluation of evidence.

Your specialist solicitor can advise you to take out insurance (either 'before the event' or 'after the event' insurance), which can cover these costs in case you lose your case. If you win your case, your costs and most (if not all) of your disbursements will be paid by the other side.

After the event insurance is taken out if you are already in the middle of a case and you need to cover your disbursements and you also run the risk of having to cover the costs of the other side if you lose. Your solicitor is required to send regular reports on the progress of your case to the insurance company that provides the cover, particularly if the opposing side makes any offers to settle the claim. A before the event insurance policy is often sold independently (along with house and content insurance or car cover, for example) and if you already have this insurance you may not need to enter into a conditional-fee agreement with a claims solicitor. Before the event insurance covers:
• Your solicitor's fees and expenses
• Costs for expert witnesses
• Court fees
• Your opponent's legal costs

However, it will not cover any compensation you may be ordered to pay if you lose your case. In most cases, you must report the incident that leads to a compensation claim within six months of the event happening, although you will need to check that this time limit is not shorter on some policies. There may also be a limit on the amount of legal expenses that a policy will cover and other policies will have provisos concerning the choice of solicitor and procedure in the event of a reasonable settlement being offered. So it is vitally important to sit down with a specialist solicitor at the beginning and go through any insurance policy you may have to ensure that you have full coverage for the duration of the case.

Until recently, many solicitors charged a 'success fee', which meant that if you won your case, the solicitor would take a percentage of the award to compensate the solicitor for the risk of not being paid if you lost. However, due to public pressure, this practice has changed with solicitors claiming their 'success fee' from the losing side as part of the overall costs and often agreeing to waive any difference and not take it from the client's compensation. This now means that in most cases recipients really do get 100% of the compensation awarded, making it a fairer system for everyone. The no win no fee system has given many people the opportunity to claim compensation for injuries that result from accidents that are not their fault, meaning that the financial worry of bringing a justified case has been removed. But that first discussion with a specialist solicitor to make sure that your position is adequately covered by insurance is essential before any legal action is initiated.

For further information, please visit http://www.1stclaims.co.uk