No Win No Fee Charges (conditional fee)

anthony1234

Hello there

I need help in my case of injury claim through no win no fee lawyer,
I had injury few months ago and i claimed through no win no fee lawyer thought that it would be no charges if i win.luckily the third party accepted the liability and paid £2500 in compensation.

Now my lawyer of no win no fee asking me to pay 20% of the compensation, he said i had signed the agreement that they may cahrge this fee, which i may have but i forgot and spent all money and now unable to pay him 20%.

My question is if i dont pay him could he take me to the court for £600? and could he recover that fee from third party?

please help me on this as he is calling every day.

i would greatly appreciate

Caz3121

You need to look at the contract you entered with the NWNF lawyer
NWNF = "no win no fee but" so if you had not received any payout then there would be nothing to pay but if you win there is a fee to pay (in your case it appears this is 20%)
I am not sure which third party your are asking if they can claim it from, the contract will clearly hold you responsible so they will pursue you and you alone.
Have you tried to ask if they will accept a payment arrangement? I imagine they could likely pass this to debt collectors before it gets to court stage

David_e

anthony1234 wrote: »

i claimed through no win no fee lawyer thought that it would be no charges if i win.

The clue is no win, no fee, so by implication, win = fee.

As Caz3121 says, you need to see what you signed but why would you expect the firm to work for free which would be the case if it was "no fee" win or lose?

PS Is this a flight delay case?

pinkshoes

No win no fee, so therefore you only pay a fee if you win.

You did win, so time to cough up.

As they are a team of lawyers, then I would imagine you could end up paying more than the £600 if they take it to court.

I suggest selling whatever you bought and paying the fee. 20% is not too bad!

marliepanda

Yeah thats the whole point of no win no fee. If you dont win you dont lose anything, but if you win you pay a percentage to the lawyer.

Why would you think there would be no charges IF you do win? Its not 'free lawyer for hire'

So yeah you owe him £600. Do you think they just work for free?

molerat

anthony1234 wrote: »

My question is if i dont pay him could he take me to the court for £600?

Yes

anthony1234 wrote: »

could he recover that fee from third party?

No http://www.justice.gov.uk/civil-justice-reforms/main-changes

anthony1234

no its accident injury case. before it was completely free either you win or lose. since this year they have started charging 20% in case you win.
thanks

bris

Strange because the solicitor usually gets the cheque first and deducts their fee. The third party must have taken the hump with the solicitor and passed it straight to the claimant. But yes the fee is still due.

There are other ways however some firms get all their fee from the other side, that's why it's so lucrative, fees can be 15k and more so its not just the claimant who has to pay.

No win no fee solicitors very rarely take on cases where an insurance company, or large corporation is not involved because of the huge fees they get from a successful claim. The claimants fees is peanuts compared to the real legal fees involved.

dacouch

bris wrote: »

Strange because the solicitor usually gets the cheque first and deducts their fee. The third party must have taken the hump with the solicitor and passed it straight to the claimant. But yes the fee is still due.

There are other ways however some firms get all their fee from the other side, that's why it's so lucrative, fees can be 15k and more so its not just the claimant who has to pay.

No win no fee solicitors very rarely take on cases where an insurance company, or large corporation is not involved because of the huge fees they get from a successful claim. The claimants fees is peanuts compared to the real legal fees involved.

Their fees are now limited due to a change in the law which is why so many ambulance chasers also make a charge of circa 20% of the compensation.

The fees on a £2500 injury claim are much much much less than £15k

InsideInsurance

Even prior to the law changes the solicitors fees in Fast Track were significantly capped but there was a success fee payable by the third party on conditional funding cases.

As others have said, the success fee has been scrapped, solicitors can now keep a percentage of the settlements but settlements were universally increased 10% to in part off set this.

Your time for negotiating over the fee was prior to engaging with them, not all are charging 20%

bris

dacouch wrote: »

Their fees are now limited due to a change in the law which is why so many ambulance chasers also make a charge of circa 20% of the compensation.

The fees on a £2500 injury claim are much much much less than £15k

Didn't know the law had changed, before it was all based on the work the solicitors did, soon mounts up at £300 per hour.

Good to know though that there is some legislation to stop the no win no fee culture, even if it is just a little bit.