Where our fee comes from
Only ever from money we win for you. There is no bill during the case and no bill at the end if the case fails.
When a claim succeeds, our fee is a success fee — a percentage of your compensation, agreed with you in writing before any work starts. Success fees are subject to limits set by law, and in personal injury claims the percentage that may be taken from your damages is capped by statute. We will tell you the exact percentage, and what it means in pounds against a realistic outcome, before you sign anything.
Two things are worth understanding because they are where most confusion sits.
First, in most successful claims a large part of your solicitor's costs is recovered from the other side, not from you. The success fee is what sits on top of that, and it is the part that comes from your damages.
Second, disbursements — the expenses of running the case, such as medical reports, court fees and expert evidence — are funded by us as the case runs. In a successful claim they are normally recovered from the other side. If the claim fails they are covered by the insurance described below, not by you.
What happens if you win, and if you lose
If you win. The other side pays your compensation and, in most cases, a substantial part of your legal costs. Our success fee is deducted from your damages at the agreed percentage, within the statutory cap where one applies. You receive the balance, and we set the arithmetic out for you in writing before the settlement is finalised — not afterwards.
If you lose. You pay us nothing for our work. That is the whole point of the arrangement and it is not qualified.
What needs stating honestly is the other side's costs. In most personal injury claims qualified one-way costs shifting protects an unsuccessful claimant from having to pay the defendant's costs. That protection is strong but it is not absolute — it can fall away if a claim is found to be fundamentally dishonest, if it is struck out, or if you fail to beat a formal settlement offer the defendant made under Part 36.
That last one is the practical risk, and it is why the advice you get about whether to accept an offer matters as much as the advice about bringing the claim. Where a case needs it, we arrange After the Event insurance to cover that exposure and any disbursements, and we explain what it costs and who pays for it before it is put in place.
Which of our services are NOT No Win, No Fee
This is the section most firms leave out, and it is the reason this page exists.
Immigration. No immigration work can be funded on a No Win, No Fee basis — not by us and not by anybody else. Conditional fee agreements are not permitted for immigration matters, so any adviser offering you one is either mistaken or misleading you, and that on its own tells you something worth knowing about them. Our immigration work is charged at a fixed fee, quoted in writing before we begin, and the first consultation is free.
Settlement agreements. These are not claims and they are not funded conditionally. A settlement agreement is not binding on your employer unless you have taken independent legal advice, so employers almost always pay a contribution to your legal fees direct to us. In most cases the advice costs you nothing — but it is an employer contribution, not a No Win, No Fee arrangement.
Independent legal advice. Certifying a personal guarantee, a mortgage or an occupier's consent is a fixed-fee piece of work with a defined scope. There is no claim and nothing to win, so a conditional fee makes no sense.
Housing disrepair against a private landlord. We take disrepair claims against councils and housing associations only. If you rent privately, the routes that help are free ones — your council's environmental health team, Shelter and Citizens Advice — and we would rather point you there than take details we cannot act on.
Every service page on this site carries a bar under the heading stating which of these applies to that page, so you never have to work it out.
Questions to ask any firm offering No Win, No Fee
Conditional fee agreements are not identical between firms, and the differences are worth understanding before you sign. These are the questions we would want a member of our own family to ask.
- What percentage is the success fee? Ask for the figure and for a worked example in pounds against a realistic settlement, not a percentage in isolation.
- Is it capped, and at what? In personal injury claims a statutory cap applies to what may be taken from damages. Ask what the cap is for your type of claim.
- Who pays the disbursements if I lose? Medical reports and court fees are real money. Find out who is funding them and what happens to that if the claim fails.
- Will I need After the Event insurance? If so, what does it cost, when is it paid, and does it come out of my damages?
- What happens if I reject an offer and do worse at trial? This is where costs protection can fall away. A firm that glosses over it is not being straight with you.
- What if I want to end the agreement? Ask what you would owe if you changed solicitors or discontinued, and get the answer in writing.
Is "No Win, No Fee" the same as risk-free?
No, and we will not tell you it is.
On our fee, the position is absolute: if the claim does not succeed you owe us nothing for our work. That much genuinely is without risk to you.
What is not risk-free is the wider costs position. Qualified one-way costs shifting protects most unsuccessful personal injury claimants from the defendant's costs, but that protection has exceptions, and failing to beat a Part 36 offer is the one that catches people out. There is also the time and the emotional cost of running a claim, which no funding arrangement removes.
We would rather say that plainly at the start than have you discover it later. If any firm tells you a claim carries no risk whatsoever, ask them about Part 36 and see what happens.