If you have sustained injuries from an accident and the accident was another person's fault, you should file an accident claim. Do not be afraid of pursuing the case because you cannot afford legal representation. No-win, no-fee claim policies are aimed at giving you a chance to get compensation even when you cannot afford to pay the initial fees to hire a lawyer. The following is a brief look at what no-win, no-fee claims are all about.
What Does No-Win, No-Fee Mean?
In accident claims, solicitors are usually willing to represent clients on the basis of no-win, no-fee. This means that if the case does not go in favor of your lawyer, you will not have to pay them.
When you get into such an arrangement with your lawyer, it means they will serve you while paying for all the legal aspects of the case. You will not incur any initial costs since your lawyer accepts and absorbs the risk involved with taking your case. However, if they win the case, you are expected to pay a fee referred to as the success fee.
How Do No-Win, No-Fee Deals Work?
The no-win, no-fee deal is set out in a document called conditional fee agreement (CFA). The success fee is derived from a percentage of the amount of compensation that you have been awarded. When you get into a no-win, no-fee agreement, your lawyer has the right to claim a fraction of the compensation you recover from the case as their success fee. This percentage could be as high as 25% of damages recovered from your injury claim.
If you win the injury claim, most of the legal costs are going to be recovered from the guilty party's insurance company. You are just liable to pay your solicitor's legal fees, their disbursements (costs they incurred in order to pursue your case such as expert fees and filing fees) and their success fee. In some cases, the court orders your opponent to pay for all these costs (excluding the success fee) and refund the money you might have paid as premium to insure yourself against the risk of losing the case.
If the claim fails to succeed, the amount of money you should pay your lawyer depends on what you agreed to in the CFA. You are not entitled to pay legal fees. However, if you agreed to pay miscellaneous expenses such as expert's charges (in case an expert was called upon to offer their services to help your case) and court costs, you are required to pay for those expenses.
If your case fails, you are also liable to pay for your opponent's costs. You should ask your lawyer to help you get insurance against this type of risk but you may have to pay for the insurance on your own.
Share29 January 2015
No one gets married planning to get divorced, but by the time I see them it's pretty obvious why they are getting divorced. When a marriage is beyond repair I'm there to fight for my clients right's under family and property law and to get them the best deal I can possibly negotiate. Even if you feel like your case is messy or complicated, I can guarantee in my time as a lawyer I have seen and heard worse things! This site has a collection of useful articles and links on developments and case law in the Family Court of Australia.