A guide to Conditional Fee Agreements

Conditional Fee Agreements, also known as no win no fee agreements, confers an individual with a right to pay his solicitors only under certain circumstances.

Under normal legal proceedings, you would have to pay for your solicitor irrespective of the fact whether you win the case or not.

However, a no win no fee agreement would mean that you do not have to pay anything until you win the case and if you loose the claim, you are not required to make any payments at all.

Although a solicitor is not paid if the claim is lost, they can charge a 'success fee' over and above their normal fee, if the case is won.

This 'success fee' can be, at the most, 100% of the normal fee. It is for this reason that no-win-no-fee agreements are widely preferred by injury lawyers as well.

Normally, legal costs can be recovered from the other party. However, it should be noted that not all costs can be recovered and you would still be required to pay about 30%-40% of the total legal expenses.

Apart from these legal expenses, you would still be required to pay for disbursements, which are payments made by the solicitors on your behalf, including barrister's fee and travelling expenses.

If you want to protect yourself from paying the other party's legal expenses in case you lose the claim, it is advisable to purchase an After the Event (ATE) insurance policy.

Apart from providing coverage for the other party's legal expenses in case you lose the lawsuit, this coverage also covers for the disbursements & legal charges incurred by you.

One important aspect of a no-win-no-fee agreement is that in case you hire a no-win-no-fee solicitor and later decide to discontinue the service, you would be liable to pay for the legal expenses as well as the disbursements.

This is because the time spent by your solicitor on your case cannot be recovered from the other party hence you would be the one who is liable to pay.

No-win-no-fee helps fisherman's widow to receive compensation

In similar news, a 40 year old widow, whose husband died due to drowning, has been awarded a six-figure compensation amount, due to the help of no-win-no-fee solicitors.

This ruling comes five years after her husband fell into the water while tying a boat and drowned.

The widow is planning to put all the money into a trust that would be utilized for the children's future. She commented: "It's been a tough, long struggle but we've finally got what we asked for.

"The skipper has never apologized to me and never came to visit. They were all a close crew. I just wanted to make sure my children were provided for. It's never got any easier but the children have got me through it."

The boat owners, on the other hand, defended themselves by saying that they were not aware of the deceased returning back to the harbour to tie the vessel.