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What does ‘No Win No Fee’ really mean when making a claim?

By Ian Morris | Updated September 29th, 2023

66 questions have been answered on this subject - ask us your question

No Win No Fee is a common way of making a claim for personal injury compensation without the claimant risking extremely expensive legal fees. However, there are important key facts potential claimants should understand and consider regarding this method of funding legal action before they instruct a No Win No Fee Solicitor to act for them.

What is a No Win No Fee claim?

The option of being able to pursue a legal action on a No Win No Fee basis is an important and vital legal right that affords people the opportunity to seek justice and redress from a 3rd party, without risk to their own finances. Without No Win No Fee options, a claimant would have to have personal wealth to be able to pursue their claim.

A No Win No Fee agreement (officially known as a Conditional Fee Agreement or CFA) enables a Solicitor to pursue a claim on the basis that they will charge no fee to the claimant if they fail to succeed with the claim. If successful, it allows the Solicitor to recover the majority of the claimant’s legal fees from the defendant and deduct a small percentage from the claimant’s settlement to cover the remaining fees.

A Solicitor will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a claim at the outset before they then decide if the prospect of success outweighs the prospect of failure. If a Solicitor is of the view that the claim has a realistic prospect of succeeding, they may offer to pursue the matter for the claimant on a Conditional Fee Agreement (No Win No Fee) basis.

A claimant will pay nothing if their claim is unsuccessful so long as they have not acted fraudulently and have cooperated fully with their Solicitor during the pursuit of the claim.

What do I pay if I win my No Win No Fee claim?

If a Solicitor succeeds with a No Win No Fee claim for their client, they will ensure that the full extent of any injury (and the long term consequences of the injury) are fully understood and that the maximum amount of compensation will be negotiated for the injury. Also, the Solicitor will ensure that all lost income and incurred costs that can be attributed to the injury are recovered. This will form the total settlement of the claim and the value will be agreed between the Solicitor and claimant and then negotiated with the defendants.

When settlement is agreed and the balance forwarded to the claimant, the Solicitor will – as per the terms of the Conditional Fee Agreement (no win no fee) signed at the outset, deduct up to 25% of the awarded compensation. This deduction goes towards the Solicitors legal fees, with further costs chargeable to the defendant. The only other cost that a claimant may face on success of their claim is for any provided After the Event (ATE) insurance cover that the Solicitor had to put in place at the outset of the claim. The law prohibits successful claimants from recovering the cost of ATE cover from the defendants on success of a claim. If such cover is needed, the cost is typically between £150 & £250 but this can vary. Again, it is only payable if and when a claim succeeds and never payable if a claim fails.

If a claimant has pre-existing Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI) cover in place, a Solicitor will attempt to use that, meaning that there will be no further cost when succeeding with a claim.

What do I pay if I lose my No Win No Fee claim?

Whilst any claim that is pursued is taken on with the genuine hope of succeeding, there is always a possibility that the claim will fail. It may be that the defendants are able to mount a robust defence at the outset and demonstrate that the claim will not succeed, or it could be that the claim end in a court hearing and a judge decides that it is not reasonable to hold the defendant liable.

Whilst the failure of any claim is extremely disappointing for the claimant, the claimant will not face any costs whatsoever in such circumstances, so long as the information they have provided to their Solicitor was honest and they have cooperated fully with their Solicitor during the process of the claim.

The claimant will not pay their own Solicitor’s costs, or those of the defendants, as the liability for such costs will be met by the Solicitor by way of the claimant’s pre-existing LEI cover or by way of ATE insurance cover put in place by the Solicitor. It is important to note that the claimant will NOT pay for any ATE cover if their claim is not successful.

Can I ever be charged if my claim fails?

If you, as a claimant, have acted honestly, cooperated with your Solicitor fully (answered questions, attended medical assessments, responded to queries etc) you will never pay a penny to any person should the claim eventually fail for reasons beyond your control.

However, claimants must be aware that a Solicitor does withhold the right to recover costs if it is found that a claimant has acted fraudulently and caused the Solicitor to incur costs in their efforts to pursue a claim that is found to be dishonest or incorrect. Also, if a claim were to fail because a claimant failed to cooperate with their Solicitor, return signed authorities within an agreed deadline, failed to attend a medical assessment or court hearing, a Solicitor is within their rights to pursue that claimant for their costs as they can not recover their costs from a defendant if the claim fails due to the fault of the claimant.

Finally, a claimant may be pursued for costs if they decide to withdraw from their claim before it is settled. The reason for this is that their Solicitor will have incurred costs – both from the hours of work that they would have conducted on the claim and also disbursements (medical records requests, medical expert instructions etc) – and they will no longer be able to recover them from the defendants.

Claimants who are worried about pursuing their claim should always speak with us or their Solicitors before they decide to withdraw from the process. We are humans and we care. We understand that people may have anxiety about taking legal action and we’re here to help make sure that you have the confidence to pursue the matter fully.

Cancelling a No Win No Fee agreement

Whilst it is rare for a claimant to cancel their claim, all claimants have the right to terminate their No Win No Fee agreement with a Solicitor that has been instructed. All claimants will be made aware of this at the signing of their agreement with their chosen Solicitor. Any claim cancelled within the first 14 days is within a cooling off period and no fees would be payable to the Solicitor. However, claimants are reminded that they should be aware that they may be required to pay fees to their Solicitor should they choose to cancel their instruction to their Solicitor after the 14 day period, as the Solicitor will be unable to recover the costs for the work that they have undertaken.

Who pays Direct2Compensation?

The claimant will never pay a penny to Direct2Compensation, win or lose. We are not funded by the claimant. The specialist personal injury Solicitor firms who form our specialist partner panel pay us. Their payments are not based on a volume of claims or on success or failure meaning that we have no motivation for attempting to pursue low quality claims or to pressurise claimants in to taking action. Our specialist Solicitors have a proven track record of success and our clients give excellent feedback as to the quality of service provided by them.

66 questions have been answered on this subject - ask us your question

Comments & Questions

Read on for questions and advice about claiming...

Hi
I have received and accepted a settlement offer on my personal injury claim after a car accident. In December last year 2020 I was contacted to say they would be sending an interim payment whilst they were still finalising their legal costs. Three months later and numerous emails the solicitors dealing with my claim still say they are awaiting payment and until they do so they cannot send my balance. My question being is this a normal procedure?

The length of delay in the 3rd party making the interim payment is not normal, although it is common for defendant insurers to be somewhat slow in making payment.

Hi, I have recieved a solicitors bill from a no win no fee solicitors but I have never signed any agreement as the first lot of paperwork they sent me had small print I wasn’t happy with and didn’t want to peruse anything as i felt my daughter didn’t have any injury from the RTA.
She was a passenger in another families vehicle and I was contacted by the solicitors they were using, I never reached out to them. She attended a Dr appointment as the other family asked her to attend to see if she had any injuries and I was just sent a text message telling me where to be and at what time by the solicitors. I’ve not and never signed anything and after a very aggressive phone call a year later I then end up with this bill, do they have any right to ask for this money?
Thanks Diane

Without you having ever formally instructed anyone to pursue this matter for your daughter, I am at a loss as to why a medical assessment would have been arranged and even more so that you have now been billed costs for this matter. I do not believe you have any liability and I would suggest that you report the firm in question to the regulatory authorities and have this investigated formally.

If I want to do a claim will the costs to the solicitor ever exceed “go over” the pay out ?

To answer your question simply, the answer is no – never! When pursuing a claim on a No Win No Fee basis, you will never pay any costs should your claim succeed. Whilst all claimants must contribute to their own legal fees when pursuing a claim for personal injury compensation, our Solicitors will deduct no more than 25% of any compensation received regardless of the total cost of the claim. In rare cases, an additional ‘After the Event‘ insurance policy may be needed, but this is certainly not the case in the majority of claims. If ATE cover is needed, the claimant would only pay the premium if they were to succeed with their claim and again, it would be a relatively small value compared to their final settlement.

So I have cancelled the instructed solicitors on my no win no fee case because of their incompetence and the fact they wanted to charge me 25% plus vat. I have now taken on a new solicitor who is absolutely brilliant and will not be changing me anything. My question is do I still have to pay my old solicitors?

How are the new Solicitors to receive any fees? Are you certain that they are not deducting 25% from your settlement?

Your previous Solicitors will be entitled to recover the fees that they incurred for the work that they have undertaken on your claim – if you are successful. This will be as per the terms of the No Win No Fee agreement you would have signed with them at the start of the claim. Indeed, when obtaining your file from the previous Solicitors, the new Solicitor would have had to give an undertaking to ensure that the previous Solicitors lien costs would be covered should they succeed with the claim.

No my new solicitor will get paid from the other side and have told me they do not have to pay the other solicitors if I don’t want them to as i will be taking them to court for their incompetence and lies they told me.

If you are making a professional negligence claim against the previous Solicitors, you won’t have to pay their fees – unless you fail with that action.

No win no fee, do I have to pay something to the solicitor if i signed agreement for money to not claim anymore?

If a claimant withdraws from the claims process or fails to cooperate, a Solicitor is within their rights (as stated in any and all Conditional Fee Agreements) to pursue the claimant for costs. This is because when acting on a conditional fee basis, a Solicitor can only recover their costs if they succeed with a claim. Whilst the claimant will never pay if the claim fails for reasons beyond their control – such as a robust defence or insufficient evidence – if the claim fails because the claimant has been dishonest or simply opted to pull out, a Solicitor will be left unfairly out of pocket.

Whilst the ‘right’ for a Solicitor to pursue a claimant for costs exists, the reality is that it would rarely be followed through – simply due to the costs of such action and the fact that they would probably not receive payment anyway.

I have been suspended from work for over 6 months after being dragged into another group’s feud at work where there was a covert recording made. Our disciplinary process is 7 days to a month. Due to lengthy of time this has taken it has affected my mental health severely and had to seek medical help. I have emailed on multiple occasions HR. Until recently all of my emails were ignored even though I had stated how badly I was doing. Is this something I can legally hold them accountable for?

There is potential to take action and this is certainly a matter that our specialist Solicitors can consider for you and offer advice. If you would like further advice on this, please email a summary of your situation – along with a contact number – to us at justice@direct2compensation.co.uk so that we can have our specialist Solicitors consider this and advise you.

I’ve been asked by out injury lawyer to pay £750 to engage with a private physician that will assess my injuries.
(Medical negligence from an NHS hospital) leg injury that went wrong. The Injury Lawyer would appear confident that we have a strong case but says we need this independent assessment. Surely I should not have to pay (I don’t have that kind of money spare) and everything stops until we make the assessment. I thought that there were various insurances that would cover this.. I don’t want to argue with our lawyer but he can’t see an alternative?

Clinical Negligence although personal injury, are slightly different to the ‘normal’ claims when an injury has happened in a non-fault accident and we have no reason to question the integrity of your Solicitor. In normal circumstances, a claimant should be able to undergo a specialist medical assessment at no cost (the cost is met by the defendant if they admit liability). Have you already had any such medical? If a 2nd medical is requested, that will be a cost that the claimant has to meet, whether they win, lose or draw!

Have you asked your Solicitor why they cannot fund the medical for you as a disbursement and reclaim the cost from the defendant if they succeed with your claim?

Of course, if liability is admitted, you shouldn’t worry too much as you will get the costs back when you settle your claim.

Thanks, Ian.. I’ve emailed my solicitor. Of course, I agree with you why can’t the solicitor meet the cost if he’s that confident that we have a strong case? I was even thinking of contacting my insurance company who offer legal cover just to cover the cost? Seems very inefficient.
Let’s see how he replies..

Good luck – hopefully the Solicitor will be able to provide helpful support.

My wife has just received by post the “no win, no fee” contract in the post from a Solicitor.

Page 14 of the contract includes the following :
Paying us if we (the solicitors) end this agreement

Clause:
(i) We can end this agreement if you do not keep to your responsibilities….etc (acceptable)
(ii) We can end this agreement if we believe you are unlikely to win. If this happens you will only have to pay our expenses and disbursements, which will include barristers’ fees if the barrister does not have a conditional agreement with us.

This second clause seems to me to be unnacceptable as it effectively allows the Solicitors to accept cases they are unsure of winning and charge their own clients for their fees by cancelling the contract before it goes to court. Their firm can end up minimising risk and winning payment either way.

My wife has only had an initial telephone consultation with the Solicitors and is now worried that if she refuses their services because of this clause, she will already have to pay them for sending her this contract and associated paperwork including a partly filled in claim notification form (RTA 1) and a mibservices.orguk askCUE PI enquiry match.

Is she correct in belieivng she is already indebted to this form before signing the contract and possibly becoming further in debt to a possibly untrustworthy Company?
Is this clause typical of “no win, no fee” agreements and is it one that your Company requires to be within the contract?

Whilst the wording that you cite can be read in the way you have noted, you need not worry as the paperwork is for No Win No Fee services. You (in this case your Wife), will not pay any costs whatsoever should the claim fail and she should only contribute up to a maximum of 25% of any awarded total if you succeed.

All Conditional Fee Agreement (No Win No Fee) paperwork contain such clauses. They are not in place to enable Solicitors to run any case that comes across their desk, but to minimise exposure to cost for the Solicitors. Again, if a claimant fails and loses their claim, they pay NOTHING whatsoever – to any party. At Direct2Compensation, we ensure that all clients instructing our Solicitors first receive a simple one page summary – essentially a guarantee on costs (no costs if no success and a maximum deduction of up to 25% if they succeed).

There can be some exceptions to costs – but never any cost when a claim fails. In certain claims, a claimant may require an After the Event (ATE) insurance policy to be put in place – although in almost all cases with us/our Solicitors, such cover is not needed and is not recommended or taken. In the rare event that ATE cover is suggested or taken, the claimant will never pay for it if the claim is not successful, but if the claim is successful, they cannot recover the premium from the defendant and must pay for it from any settlement obtained. Again, this is a very rare occurrence and is certainly not recommended in RTA claims.

Your Wife certainly won’t face any costs if she opts NOT to sign the Solicitors paperwork. The firm in question are not instructed to act for her until she formally signs their paperwork. Further, there is a 14 day cooling off period post signing any such forms.

We would be more than happy to have our Solicitors act for your Wife in her claim.

I’ve got a current work injury claim going on but the defendant insurers will not give a response for liability which has been ongoing for over 12 months.
I’m not happy with my solicitor who are just sitting back on the case showing no forward direction.
Could I request correspondence documentation between my solicitor and the defendant insurer to see what is actually happening, as I’ve lost total faith and trust with my solicitor?
Please advise.

Given the timeframe you mention, you have every right to feel uneasy about the claim. You should request some written evidence from your Solicitor as to what they have done and you could even consider complaining to force them to fully update you about the situation. If you exhaust all avenues of working with your current Solicitor, you can then seek to switch to a new Solicitor to pursue the claim for you.

My no win no fee solicitor does not want to continue to act for me in three admitted liability cases after two and a half years. What should I do?

It seems bizarre that a Solicitor would choose to withdraw from cases where they have achieved an admission of liability! If the Solicitors close their file, they are writing off their fees and success fees! What is their reasoning for withdrawing from the claims?

Unless there is something we are not aware of that has lead to them closing their files, it should not be too difficult to place the claims with a new Solicitor and get to the point where settlement is reached and the cases closed in your favour.

I have a solicitor working for me on a no win no fee basis against my previous employer.
the company have accepted liability but don’t want the case to go to a tribunal. the original injury to feeling was £16,500. but because they came back with a bit of defence, we had to drop the injury to feeling. the first offer was £3000 but I said no and went back with £12,000, but the solicitor said no go for £9000 and if they offer £5000 we should accept it. I said I wasn’t prepared to drop that low and he said if it continues like this then I will not be able to carry on with this case on the no win no fee basis. this case hasn’t been going on for long, and we have an acas conciliator involved. Should he be saying this to me?

It is hard to advise as to whether or not your Solicitor is advising you correctly but we would always assume that the Solicitor is acting correctly and advising you in your best interests. However, you cite a hefty drop in damages and are well within your rights to be unhappy with the lowering of possible damages. However, your Solicitor maybe right and as per the terms of the Conditional Fee Agreement that you would have signed with them, they are able to terminate a No Win No Fee agreement if you ignore their advice.

I would suggest that you should ask for a different Solicitor within the same firm to review your file – perhaps via the Solicitors complaints policy (which would be published on their website) in order for a fresh view on things.