Legal claims: 'No win, no fee' vs 'contingency fee'

If you have to go to Law for an accident claim you may be offered a “no win, no fee” agreement or even a contingency fee agreement, but what’s the difference?

A Conditional Fee Agreement is what is commonly referred to as a no-win, no-fee agreement.

This means that if a claim fails you don’t pay your solicitor but if it succeeds your solicitor claims his costs and a success fee (uplift on costs) from the opponent in the case.

A Contingency Fee Agreement is common in the USA and less common here. If the claim fails then you do not pay your solicitor but if the claim succeeds your solicitor gets a percentage of the compensation as costs.

Such agreements are only allowed in certain cases over here such as Motor Insurers’ Bureau or Criminal Injuries Compensation claims.

The reason a solicitor may want to act on a contingency fee basis in such claims is because he/she will receive no or only limited costs from CICA and the MIB respectively, and solicitors have to make a living, too!

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