A complete guide to No Win No Fee claims
- What is no win no fee?
- How do no win no fee claims work?
- Making a no win no fee claim
- What are conditional fee agreements?
- How does a conditional fee agreement work?
- Is there any risk in no win no fee?
- How to cancel a no win no fee claim
What is no win no fee?
No win no fee means you won’t have to pay for any legal costs, or costs associated with your claim, unless you win your case. If your claim is successful, limited costs are paid from your compensation amount. Most of our clients choose to fund their case through a no win no fee agreement. We guarantee that if we take on your case and if we win, you will receive at least 75% of the compensation awarded.
How do no win no fee claims work?
Most of our claims are funded using our funding package, which means if you lose your case, it should not cost you a penny. The package includes a conditional Fee Agreement, a loan facility and after the event insurance. The package will ensure that you do not have to pay our costs, or any third-party costs, as your case progresses. If you win your case, we will recover most of the costs from the defendants and we will deduct a success fee, the insurance premium, the loan facility fee and any unrecovered costs from your compensation. The costs that are deducted from your compensation will always be limited to a maximum of 25% of the total you receive, guaranteeing that you will receive at least 75% of the compensation awarded.
Making a no win no fee claim
The first step is to give us a call. We have a team of friendly lawyers who will listen to you and advise you on the next steps. It’s free to talk to us and we will advise you about the different ways the case can be funded, including no win no fee, legal aid, legal expenses insurance and any other available options. We will give you detailed information about how the funding works and everything will have been explained carefully. We make sure that people who have experienced injury and damage because of medical negligence can access legal advice.
With Tees you can make a no win no fee claim for a very wide range of medical negligence situations including the following:
What are conditional fee agreements?
Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs) are contracts agreed between a client and a solicitor when starting a claim for compensation. They set out how the solicitor’s fees, or a part of them, will be paid. This payment will be only on the condition of certain circumstances – which is most often if the case is won. A conditional Fee Agreement is the formal name for the agreement that is commonly referred to as No Win, No fee. It’s often linked to legal advice such as medical negligence or personal injury where compensation could be awarded.
How does a conditional fee agreement work?
If you lose the case, you do not pay. The legal fees are written off. We are able to arrange insurance for you which provides full cover for any third party expenses, e.g. medico-legal expert fees, court fees, if the case is unsuccessful. The insurance premium is deferred and self-insured, which means that if the case is unsuccessful, you do not have to pay a penny.
If you win the case and receive compensation, the defendant will pay the majority of your legal fees and expenses. You do pay your solicitor a ‘success fee’ from your compensation to reflect the fact that in running your case, the law firm has taken the financial risk and in most cases, will not be paid for many years for the work that they have undertaken. If there is insurance in place, you will need to pay part of the Insurance premium. You may also need to pay for any other associated costs with funding the case, such as loan fees or costs that are not recovered from the Defendant. However, at Tees, we guarantee that you will always receive at least 75% of the compensation recovered.
In a no win no fee case, it is the solicitor that is taking the main financial risk because if they don’t win the case for you, they won’t be paid. We spend a lot of time reviewing the facts and considering the medical and legal position at the outset as it is in no-one’s interest to run a case that is never going to succeed. At Tees, this initial assessment is free. We will not advise you to proceed unless we are confident you have a good chance of winning the case.
Is there any risk in no win no fee?
As long as you take out insurance to cover any third party expenses and any costs you may be ordered to pay the defendant throughout the case, you can pursue the case without carrying any financial risk.
We always recommend that a client takes out insurance and can arrange this for you. That way, you can pursue your case with absolute peace of mind, provided that you keep your responsibilities under the agreement. These include co-operating throughout the case, attending any necessary expert examinations and/or court hearings, and giving instructions that allow us to do our work properly.
One important exception to the rule is that if you are found to be fundamentally dishonest by the Court, the no win no fee Agreement will be invalidated and the Insurance Policy will be void. This means that you will become liable for the full costs of the litigation.
If you’re thinking of starting a no win no fee claim, it’s important that you work with a solicitor who will take the time to discuss all the implications and options.
How to cancel a no win no fee claim
In certain circumstances, you have the right to cancel the Agreement within 14 days of signature.
After that time, if you wish to cancel the agreement, you need to talk to the solicitor working on your case. They will be able to advise what options are available to you.
We’re here to help
We have many specialist lawyers who are based in:
Cambridgeshire: Cambridge
Essex: Brentwood, Chelmsford, and Saffron Walden
Hertfordshire: Bishop's Stortford and Royston
But we can help you wherever you are in England and Wales.
Chat to the Author, Janine Collier
Executive Partner, Medical Negligence, Cambridge office
Meet Janine
- Areas of expertise
- Accreditations
- Testimonials
Legal 500 UK 2023
'Janine Collier has an amazing reputation and quite rightly, she very quickly spotted something that wasn’t the main focus of the case but is able to zoom out and look at everything that’s going on and spot things others wouldn’t spot. You can tell she really cares and is a very dedicated person who just wants to help. The team are all caring and efficient'
A
Cambridge
'A heartfelt thank you for all you have done in preparation for and during the settlement meeting, as well as for your unfailing support along the way, in and out of hours. It is undoubtedly due to your high professionalism if the outcome today has exceeded all expectations; it will be a huge help for us going forward and we will be forever grateful'
Chambers & Partners 2022
Cambridge
'Janine Collier is renowned for her handling of delay in diagnosis, obstetric injury and surgical negligence claims. She is at the top of her game and knows clinical negligence inside and out'
Susan Hickman
Cambridge
'We consider ourselves fortunate to have been recommended to Tees by the solicitor we initially approached. We did not realise it until the case was well established that the level of professional care we were receiving was exceptional and that the experience of the individuals and the contacts they have to assist in a very complex case was the best available. We are grateful that we received a satisfactory settlement as a result of their efforts under difficult circumstances and dealing with defendants that were obstructive and disorganised. By far the greatest benefit for us however is the fact that the victim, with assistance from highly skilled experts that we would not have known about otherwise, learned to walk short distances when all other medical opinion did not consider this possible. This was their greatest achievement which is well beyond the service we expected'
Legal 500 UK 2021
"Janine Collier, head of department, is a perspicacious and very able lawyer, certainly one of the best in the region and beyond, who believes in her team and in the work she does. A genuinely nice person who sees it as her clients’ right and her duty to achieve the best possible outcome for them. Janine delivers this time after time. She is an extremely intelligent and intuitive lawyer who has a genuine understanding of the difficulties and fears clients experience when living with an avoidable injury."
Legal 500 UK 2021
"Janine Collier is a really good solicitor – she really understands the medicine in clin neg cases and works well with the team, the clients and the experts to get excellent results in difficult cases."
Legal 500 UK 2021
"Janine Collier is exceptionally good at analysis, organisation and strategy."
Legal 500 UK 2021
"Janine Collier is a really good solicitor, she really understands the medicine in clinical negligence cases and works well with the team, the clients and the experts to get excellent results in difficult cases."
Legal 500 2021
"Janine Collier shows dedication to ensuring access to the highest level of experts on medical negligence cases. There is excellent consistent communication with experts throughout a lengthy case, creating a supportive working atmosphere and ensuring long-term engagement of expert. She has a very intelligent and insightful approach to learning from experts, enabling sharing of detailed specialist information and findings with confidence, and she is excellent in multi-professional meetings with solicitors and barristers, enhancing communication in exceptionally complex cases; very high level of sensitivity demonstrated towards the needs of client throughout the case, consistently focusing on the multifactorial needs of the client, over and above the monetary compensation."
Legal 500 UK 2021
"Janine Collier has been amazing to work with. She is always quick to respond to queries, always takes time to make sure we fully understand the process and supports us to make decisions, i.e. switching from Legal Aid to no-win no-fee, with well reasoned and researched information to support us."
Legal 500 UK 2021
‘It has always been a rewarding experience working with Janine Collier and I would commend her very highly to lead on medical negligence cases.‘
The Fisher family
Janine works with empathy, understanding and compassion. She handled our mother's inquest with skill and sensitivity and guided us expertly. She kept us informed continually via email and multiple meetings and phone calls. Janine completely took the sting and the stress out of our case.