No win no fee compensation claims are exactly that; compensation claims where if you (the claimant) do not win your case then you do not have to pay any legal fees or other expenses, even if you lose, thereby taking the risk out of making a claim. In general a no win no fee arrangement is one between a personal injury solicitor and their client. They are also known as Conditional Fee Agreements (CFA’s) and were introduced in 1995.

If you win your case then your personal injury solicitor’s legal costs will be paid for by the defendant’s insurance company and will not be deducted from your compensation sum. Under the terms of a CFA, law firms are entitled to claim a “success fee” on successful cases, which is a bonus of a certain percentage of fees to take into account the extra risk taken on by the law firm. This is also paid for by the defendant’s insurance company under current rules.

Basically, all Personal injury compensation claims can be undertaken by solicitors on a no win no fee basis; the most common claims are for: -

In general, a claim can be made in any circumstances where the claimant is owed a duty of care by the defendant and that duty of care is breached by the defendant, causing an accident without the fault of the claimant. This duty is owed in most walks of life from employers to their employees, doctors to their patients, road users to each other and so on.

The amount of compensation the claimant can receive will be negotiated by the personal injury solicitor in conjunction with the defendant’s solicitor or decided at trial, although most claims do not go to trial and are resolved out of court.

Ultimately, the purpose of the compensation is to put a claimant into the position, so far as possible, financially, they would have been in had the accident not taken place, and make an award for pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. This means that as well as compensation for  injuries, claimants can also recover expenses, such as medical bills, and  losses such as income if  unable to return to work.

If you would like to make a no win no fee compensation claim it is important that you seek advice from an experienced personal injury solicitor straight away as there are time limits in place for bringing a claim and mistakes can be made without the right advice which can seriously impact on the chances of success. The time limit is usually three years although this can differ in certain cases. If the three year time period has expired then special permission will have to be obtained from the court in order to bring a claim.

Before entering into a no win no fee arrangement you should make sure that you fully understand the terms of the CFA and your legal expenses insurance policy, so that you are fully aware of what you are entering into, for example, the amount of the insurance policy premium.