No Win No fee!

No win No fee is a part of the English legal system. No win No fee is used to refer a conditional fee agreement between the client and the law firm. No win no fee agreement was introduced in the year 2000 and vast majority of the civil cases are subjected to this arrangement.

In this no win no fee agreement usually a solicitor will take up the case with an understanding that they will not be paid if they lose the case. Lawyer will be entitled for his normal fee plus a success fee if he wins the case.

This success fee will be a percentage based fee and would not be greater than the normal fee charged. This is called as success fee in England where as in USA it is called as the Contingency fee. In contingency fee a successful attorney is paid a percentage of the claim amount awarded in favor of his client.

The sole purpose why this no win no fee agreement was formed was to offer justice to the people who have suffered personal injuries through an accident where they were not at fault but because of the carelessness of somebody else.

Apart from the criminal and family matters, many other types of claims are suitable for a No win no fee agreement. In this type of agreement there are two types of legal expenses insurance one being “After the event” insurance and “Before the event” insurance. Before the event insurance is taken along with your car insurance or home insurance policy before an personal injury or accident occurs. Some financial institutions also offer this policy.

In this no win no fee agreement the solicitor will only be paid if he wins his case. He or she will be entitled for the extra fee known as success fee if he or she wins the case. Both the basic fee and the success fee are paid in whole or part by the losing party.

All the other incurred costs like the court fees or the fees paid to get the medical reports, known as disbursements is paid by the losing party in whole or as a part. You will be liable to pay your solicitor any other costs which the losing party would not be paying if not ordered by the court.

If your compensation claim fails you will be entitled to pay the solicitors costs of the successful party. You will have to pay the disbursements of the other party like the court fees or the fee paid to get the medical reports etc. Normally your solicitor would have arranged an insurance to cover all these risk if you lose the case.

This insurance coverage is known as the “after the event” insurance. You will have to pay the insurance premium. To have conditional fee agreement valid, solicitor needs to complete some of the formalities and has to keep you updated with all the latest information’s at different stages.

Article Source:
No Win No fee!