No win no fee insurance.

Toma2

My son in law has bought a house and has now found Japanese knotweed in the garden. He has found a solicitor who says he will take the case on against the land owner who has it on their adjacent property on a no win no fee basis. But after recently seeing a group of people who did the same thing for faulty cavity wall insulation, when the solicitor went bust they then were left owing thousands of pounds in legal fees. I also understand that if the solicitor you use decides to drop the case then that also means that the claimant again is left paying for all the legal costs. 
My question is, is it possible to take out your own insurance cover and more importantly does anybody know an insurance company who with to sells a policy that covers all eventualities as the cover that the solicitor takes out would not cover the solicitor dropping the case. 

DullGreyGuy

After The Event Insurance is bought by the solicitor on your behalf... unsurprisingly the insurance is not only rated on what your claim is but also your choice of solicitor's success rate when it comes to winning cases etc, it therefore requires disclosures that you won't be able to answer. 

liveletlive

I would advice your son in law to ask the solicitor what would happen in they event they went bust, I am sure there is more to it, in that they the people that got landed with costs must not have had the cover in the first place.

[Deleted User]

@Toma2 it is something to be very careful about. The firm in question for the cavity walls SSB got a lot wrong and have left some clients in serious doo doo as a result. The important thing here is those left liable for costs are for fraudulent claims where the client was encouraged to lie about the extent of damp in their home. A combination of the case being lost / struck out or discontinued for this reason and the client negative CFA or DBA signed has led to this unfortunate situation of clients being liable for costs. No ATE insurer in the world would cover this in my exp as ATEs only cover cases ‘lost’ in court where a decision is made for a genuine case. Where it is struck out or discontinued and it has progressed beyond a certain point then the opposite sides costs become a factor and clients have been left liable as SSB can’t pay. A decent law firm would not let this happen and their due diligence would stop a case at one of the multiple stages before progressing to this point were it fraudulent, invalid or had little chance of success without incurring the other sides costs. If they did, they would pay those costs not the client.

In short, if your son in law has a genuine claim and there is a decent ATE and provider (ideally AAA rated) and a reputable firm with a client positive contract they should never be at risk of paying costs even if the claim lost. As ever you and your son in law should do your own diligence on the firm via the SRA and other resources on the internet.

There are several reputable, well established firms progressing these claims, if the Solicitors vintage is 2021 then it is a bandwagon firm to be avoided imo!

I realise your question was about buying your own insurance but this shouldn’t be necessary or possible as the firm will get an ATE and it is likely you will be paying for the firms ATE as part of the fee if the claim is successful.

No win No Fee is a clumsy phrase at best.

Toma2

Thank you all for your replies, I’m sure they will be very helpful to him.