By Jo Anderson. Last Updated 25th October 2024. Welcome to this guide, which answers the question of ‘what percentage do No Win No Fee solicitors take in personal injury claims?’
Below, we investigate solicitors fees for personal injury claims, explain whether there are any No Win No Fee disadvantages, and offer guidance on how to work out the conditional fee percentage you’re being charged.
If you are interested in claiming for a car accident, medical negligence, an accident at work or any other type of personal injury, we could help. Our specialists will review your case and advise you about your options for free.
If there is a reasonable chance of winning your case, we could appoint one of our solicitors to it. Again, if they do agree to work for you, it will be on a No Win No Fee basis.
If you would like to know more about how the claims process works, please continue reading. Alternatively, call our team today on 0800 073 8801 if you’d like to discuss your claim right away.
Select A Section
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- A Guide On What Percentage Do Solicitors Take?
- Success Fees – What Percentage Do Solicitors Take?
- What Is A Conditional Fee Agreement?
- What Is A Damages Based Agreement?
- What Compensation Could I Receive?
- How Do Solicitors Calculate Special Damages?
- Find No Win No Fee Injury Claim Solicitors – Contact Accident Claims UK
- Talk To Us About What Percentage Solicitors Take
- What To Read Next After Learning More About What Percentage Do Solicitors Take?
A Guide On What Percentage Do Solicitors Take?
As we continue through this article, our main aim is to answer the question, “What percentage do solicitors take?” However, before we do, it’s important to look at whether it’s possible for you to claim on a No Win No Fee basis. To be entitled to claim, a solicitor will probably want evidence that:
- The defendant owed you a legal or professional duty of care; and
- They breached that duty of care causing an incident or accident; and
- You were injured or suffered illness as consequence.
Something else they’ll check is that you are starting your claim within the relevant time limit. For personal injury claims involving adults, this is usually a 3-year time frame. Cases involving children or adults without the mental capacity to claim won’t be subject to this limitation period though. Why not check in touch with our advisors to check which time limits could apply?
The Jackson Reforms – What Percentage Do Solicitors Take And Why?
Something that’s important to mention is that, in April 2013, the rules for funding litigation changed. As a result of the Jackson Review, it is no longer possible for a solicitor to recover their success fee from the defendant. This is why you now need to pay a success fee if your claim is won and you might need After The Event (ATE) insurance to cover your solicitor’s expenses. We’ll look at this in more detail later on.
During the rest of this guide, we’ll look at the types of agreements that can be used to fund compensation claims, how we’ve got to where we are today in terms of success fees and we’ll also show you how much compensation you could be entitled to claim.
After you have completed our guide, why not call our team if you have any questions or if you’d like to start a claim?
Success Fees – What Percentage Do Solicitors Take?
When asking the question, “what percentage do solicitors take for No Win No Fee claims?” you’re referring to their success fee. When a claim is won, the solicitor collects the awarded compensation, subtracts a fee for their work, and sends the rest to the claimant.
Some people may wonder, ‘How much do No Win No Fee lawyers take for UK claims’, but our solicitors leave no doubt by having an open and transparent conversation about their success fee.
It’s important to know that a No Win No Fee solicitor would never walk away with the majority of the compensation.
For a more in-depth look into what percentage do No Win No Fee solicitors take, we need to review the different types of agreement that can be offered.
Do you have to pay No Win No Fee solicitors if your claim fails?
On top of their success fee, solicitors can charge for certain disbursements such as court fees. If your case is won, these fees should be paid by the defendant. However, if they can’t pay, they could be deducted from your settlement on top of the success fee. Then again, if you use the services of a No Win No Fee solicitor, they might accept that they’ll cover these costs.
It is therefore vital that you check the terms of any No Win No Fee agreement to make sure you fully understand how much you might need to pay if your case is won or lost.
What Is A Conditional Fee Agreement?
A Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) is the formal name for No Win No Fee agreements. If your case is won, a success fee is deducted from your compensation. If the case is lost, you don’t have to pay the success fee i.e. the success fee is conditional on your case being won. These fees are capped by law at 25% of your compensation.
This is the type of agreement our solicitors use when they take on injury claims. If you incur costs that the agreement does not cover, i.e. if you have to pay the defendant’s legal costs, an ATE insurance policy could be required before you can proceed with your case. This is something your solicitor should discuss with you when reviewing your case.
What Is A Damages Based Agreement?
Another type of agreement that was introduced by the new laws introduced in 2013 were Damages Based Agreements (DBA). They’re also known as contingency fee agreements. However, they have not flourished and are not as common as CFAs.
As with CFAs, DBA success fees are capped at 25% for personal injury cases. However, unlike CFAs, the success fee can be up to 35% in employment tribunals or 50% in other claims. You would agree to pay a set percentage to your solicitor if they achieve a set amount of compensation.
The fee you’d agree upon would be based on how much work your solicitor thinks is involved. Therefore, if they settle your claim quickly, it could be financially beneficial for them. Conversely, if your case drags on because the defendant denies liability, you could benefit as the solicitor won’t be able to charge you for their extra work.
Changes To The Law
Changes in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 mean that it is no longer possible to get legal aid for many types of litigation including personal injury claims.
Furthermore, changes introduced after the Jackson Review mean that solicitors now claim a success fee from you if your case is won rather than claiming it from the defendant.
One idea was that the changes to the rules would make personal injury solicitors more competitive so you wouldn’t always have to pay the full 25% success fee.
What Compensation Could I Receive?
Now that we’ve answered the question, “What percentage do solicitors take?”, let’s move on to potential compensation figures.
General damages compensate you for any physical or psychological injury you suffer due to the incident that wasn’t your fault.
While we couldn’t possibly list every injury here, we have included the below table detailing some compensation ranges. The data we have used is from the Judicial College Guidelines, except for the figure given in the first row. This is a publication solicitors turn to when estimating settlement amounts.
| Part of Body Affected | Severity | Guideline Compensation | Extra Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| More Than One Severe Injury or Illness and Financial Damage | Serious | Up to £1,000,000+ | Compensation accounting for physical and mental suffering, plus out of pocket expenses like lost earnings or medical fees. |
| Head/Brain | Very Severe | £344,150 to £493,000 | Little evidence of meaningful responses to surroundings - if any - and full-time nursing is a necessity. |
| Head/Brain | Moderate (i) | £183,190 to £267,340 | Damage causes an intellectual deficit rated moderate to severe. |
| Arms | Loss of one arm (ii) | £133,810 to £159,770 | An above the elbow arm amputation. |
| Psychiatric Damge | Severe | £66,920 to £141,240 | A very poor prognosis, plus further marked issues handling various aspects of life. |
| Back | Severe (iii) | £47,320 to £85,100 | Includes disc lesions or fractured discs, or soft tissue injuries, for example. |
| Neck | Severe (iii) | £55,500 to £68,330 | The victim will have suffered a fracture or dislocation that causes a permanent disability and chronic suffering. |
| Severe Leg Injuries | Moderate (iv) | £33,880 to £47,840 | One limb sustains multiple or complicated fractures. |
| Hips/Pelvis | Moderate (i) | £32,450 to £47.810 | Significant injuries but little future risk and any disability will not be major. |
| Face | Fractures (b) | £18,180 to £29,220 | Multiple fractures of facial bones and where there is some form of permanent deformity. |
How is compensation calculated?
The severity of your injuries is an important factor in determining how much you could be awarded. Therefore, as part of any claim, a medical assessment is needed. Our solicitors can arrange these locally so you won’t have to travel too far.
During your appointment, an independent doctor or another medical expert will review your medical notes. They’ll also discuss your injuries and examine you. After that, they’ll document their findings and your prognosis in a report and send it to your solicitor.
The solicitor can use this report to:
- Prove that your injuries were caused or worsened by the incident. (However, if the report shows no link between the incident and your injuries, you could find it difficult to claim.)
- Prove the severity of your injuries.
- Value your claim.
For a free, accurate estimate of what you could claim, why not contact our advisors?
How Do Solicitors Calculate Special Damages?
Another element to your claim might be for any costs, expenses or monetary losses you’ve incurred because of your injuries. This element is called special damages. As before, every case is unique so it’s not possible to say how much you might be able to claim. However, we can provide some examples of what could be included. Special damages might include:
- Medical expenses. If you need to pay for non-NHS treatment or incur prescription fees, you could add these costs to your claim.
- Care costs. In some cases, you might need assistance with daily chores and activities while you recover. Therefore, you could claim for a professional carer’s fees or the time a loved one spent supporting you.
- Travel costs. Trips for medical appointments could result in public transport fares, parking fees or fuel costs. As a result, they could be added to the value of your claim.
- Modifications to your vehicle or home. If you are left with a disability following your accident, changes to your car or home might make coping a little easier. Therefore, the cost of the work to make the changes might be claimable.
- Loss of earnings. Where you miss out on some or all of your earnings as a result of your injuries, they could be claimed back.
- Future lost earnings. In some instances, injuries might prevent you from working at the same level as you could prior to your accident. If that’s true, any future loss of earnings might also be considered.
To help prove the costs you’re claiming, it is vital to retain any evidence. For instance, receipts, bank statements or benefits statements could all prove useful.
Find No Win No Fee Injury Claim Solicitors – Contact Accident Claims UK
The process of making a personal injury claim may seem daunting. However, whether you’ve been injured in a car accident, a public place or an accident at work, a No Win No Fee solicitor could help you with your personal injury claim, provided you have a valid case.
Our solicitors offer their services on a No Win No Fee basis. If one of them agrees to take on your claim, they may offer you a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) which is a type of No Win No Fee arrangement.
As previously stated, if your claim is successful, you will pay a success fee to the solicitor you are working under the basis of a No Win No Fee. The percentage they can take as a success fee is legally capped at 25% under a CFA.
Additionally, under this arrangement, you will not have to pay your solicitor any upfront or ongoing fees for their services. You will also not be expected to pay them for the work they have done on your case if the claim fails.
Furthermore, one of our solicitors could help you with gathering evidence, arranging an independent medical assessment and guiding you through the personal injury claims process.
To find out if you could be eligible to work with one of our solicitors, you can contact our advisors.
Talk To Us About What Percentage Solicitors Take
If you’d like to know more about how we can help and what percentage our solicitors take as a success fee, please get in touch. We offer free legal advice and a no-obligation review. To arrange yours, you can:
- Call our team on 0800 073 8801 to discuss your claim.
- Ask us to call back by completing our online enquiry form.
- Use the live chat to ask an online advisor about how to start your claim.
We operate our claims line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so please feel free to call when it’s most convenient for you.
What To Read Next After Learning More About What Percentage Do Solicitors Take?
Hopefully, we’ve gone some way to answering the question, “What percentage do solicitors take?” Therefore, in this section, we have added some resources that you might appreciate if you do decide to claim.
The Solicitors Register – You can use this online service to check that a solicitor is registered.
Whiplash Reforms – Government advice on low-value road traffic accident claims.
NHS Services – Information on how to locate NHS services. This can help if you need to lookup an address to request medical records.
Public Place Accidents – This article shows you when you could claim against a business or the local authority if you’re injured in a public place.
Accident Claims Solicitors – A guide about how personal injury solicitors can help if you’re injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault.
Accident At Work – Information on how to take legal action if your employer’s negligence causes an accident at work.
We hope that this article has answered the question, “what percentage do solicitors take?” If you have any further questions, such as ‘do you have to pay No Win No Fee solicitors when your case fails?’ or anything else, please get in touch.
