Right to Light no win no fee

Bricks

Thanks for the replies.

The development has planning permission. I'm already aware there are some daylight issues, because I followed the application quite closely and have read the daylight & sunlight report myself. While there are some properties closer to the development that I think will be affected quite severely, I'd be a bit surprised if I really had a claim.

The company is going to send me their T&Cs which I will have a close look at before agreeing anything. So far they have said they take 30% of any payout.

Certainly I don't want to get tied into anything that would make me liable for paying them anything in any scenario other than a successful claim.

Bookworm105

take note that the original post is 5 YEARS OLD and the OP was last active on here in the year 2023

Bookworm105

Bricks said:

I'm in a similar position - high rise development planned nearby, and approached by one of these no win no fee companies.

Also wondering, has anyone had any experience of this?

as with all "no won, no fee" legal cases you start point is:

- you will have to pay for an insurance policy that covers the legal fees if you lose
- if you win then their fees will be deducted from any compensation awarded 
- will the compensation award be more than their fees? The answer to that is why they took the case as they are not doing it to lose money.
- will the amount of money you finally get be worth your time in cooperating with the company making the case? Possibly....

DullGreyGuy

Bricks said:

Certainly I don't want to get tied into anything that would make me liable for paying them anything in any scenario other than a successful claim.

Then dont bother asking for the terms and getting added to their sucker list. 

Its fundamentally how conditional funding works that an early exit means you have to pay, its would probably be better described as "if you lose you dont pay" but its not as catchy and not always 100% correct as sometimes you still have to pay for the ATE Insurance (though most are effectively self insured)

FreeBear

Bookworm105 said:

Bricks said:

I'm in a similar position - high rise development planned nearby, and approached by one of these no win no fee companies.

Also wondering, has anyone had any experience of this?

as with all "no won, no fee" legal cases you start point is:

- you will have to pay for an insurance policy that covers the legal fees if you lose

And often, the fees for the insurance policy has to be paid upfront. These things are not always cheap either (did see figures of £10K+ being bandied around for a NWNF inheritance case).

Bricks

Bookworm105 said:

Bricks said:

I'm in a similar position - high rise development planned nearby, and approached by one of these no win no fee companies.

Also wondering, has anyone had any experience of this?

as with all "no won, no fee" legal cases you start point is:

- you will have to pay for an insurance policy that covers the legal fees if you lose
- if you win then their fees will be deducted from any compensation awarded 
- will the compensation award be more than their fees? The answer to that is why they took the case as they are not doing it to lose money.
- will the amount of money you finally get be worth your time in cooperating with the company making the case? Possibly....

I asked them to send me their T&Cs because I was curious what they would be.

- there is no mention of paying for any insurance policy. Can you explain what you mean here?

- here are the bits that talk about their share of the compensation:

"all costs and expenses will be included in the agents share of the compensation". The "agents share" is set out elsewhere as 30% of the compensation amount. Am I naive to read this as meaning that whatever their costs and expenses, they can't exceed that 30%?

I do understand that they might well look at the case, decide that their costs would exceed 30% of any compensation amount that is likely to be paid, and therefore not pursue it. And the term of the agreement is 5 years, and it looks like it would prevent me for pursuing any claim by any alternative route. But if I have no intention to pursue a claim myself then it seems that what I'd have to lose by signing up to this agreement would just be the time involved in co-operating with them by supplying info and so forth.

DullGreyGuy

FreeBear said:

Bookworm105 said:

Bricks said:

I'm in a similar position - high rise development planned nearby, and approached by one of these no win no fee companies.

Also wondering, has anyone had any experience of this?

as with all "no won, no fee" legal cases you start point is:

- you will have to pay for an insurance policy that covers the legal fees if you lose

And often, the fees for the insurance policy has to be paid upfront. These things are not always cheap either (did see figures of £10K+ being bandied around for a NWNF inheritance case).

Some ATE policies effectively self insure, ie if you lose the case the insurance effectively covers its own premiums. Have seen premiums range from £30 to £1m depending on the nature of the case. Your bog standard road traffic accident is normally under £300 whereas clincial negligence can be £5k and large corporate cases can be vast numbers. Premiums are normally something like 20-40% of the estimated fees.

Paying in full up front is an option with some but isnt the most common approach in my world. Some you pay a deposit premium up front and the rest on settlement others are fully deferred to settlement. 

Bricks said:

Bookworm105 said:

Bricks said:

I'm in a similar position - high rise development planned nearby, and approached by one of these no win no fee companies.

Also wondering, has anyone had any experience of this?

as with all "no won, no fee" legal cases you start point is:

- you will have to pay for an insurance policy that covers the legal fees if you lose
- if you win then their fees will be deducted from any compensation awarded 
- will the compensation award be more than their fees? The answer to that is why they took the case as they are not doing it to lose money.
- will the amount of money you finally get be worth your time in cooperating with the company making the case? Possibly....

I asked them to send me their T&Cs because I was curious what they would be.

- there is no mention of paying for any insurance policy. Can you explain what you mean here?

- here are the bits that talk about their share of the compensation:

"all costs and expenses will be included in the agents share of the compensation". The "agents share" is set out elsewhere as 30% of the compensation amount. Am I naive to read this as meaning that whatever their costs and expenses, they can't exceed that 30%?

I do understand that they might well look at the case, decide that their costs would exceed 30% of any compensation amount that is likely to be paid, and therefore not pursue it. And the term of the agreement is 5 years, and it looks like it would prevent me for pursuing any claim by any alternative route. But if I have no intention to pursue a claim myself then it seems that what I'd have to lose by signing up to this agreement would just be the time involved in co-operating with them by supplying info and so forth.

If you lose a case you would normally have to pay the third party's solicitors bill, After the Event (ATE) insurance is there to cover those costs if you lose. 

You would need to post the full agreement to be able to answer question on it rather than a single small snippet, the main issue with these things is you are committing for 5 years of providing what they want when they want it etc. Failure to do so then makes you liable for their costs to date. Certainly with some of these firms more money is made by people abandoning claims than from cases they win.

Bricks

DullGreyGuy said:

If you lose a case you would normally have to pay the third party's solicitors bill, After the Event (ATE) insurance is there to cover those costs if you lose. 

You would need to post the full agreement to be able to answer question on it rather than a single small snippet, the main issue with these things is you are committing for 5 years of providing what they want when they want it etc. Failure to do so then makes you liable for their costs to date. Certainly with some of these firms more money is made by people abandoning claims than from cases they win.

I can't really post up the whole agreement without including various personal details.

But these bits seem to confirm that I wouldn't be liable for any costs if the case is lost -

Or are you pointing out that they carefully don't mention costs incurred by the developer, because these aren't "incurred by [the NWNF agents]" and aren't a "fee for my lawyer's services"?