Conditional fee agreements ("no win, no fee")

Conditional fee agreements (CFAs) are also known as “ no win no fee” agreements. Under such arrangements, you only pay our fees if you win. We assess the risk involved in your case and if we think it has a good chance of success we agree the amount of the "success fee" that we will receive if we win your case for you. At the end of the case we help you to collect the legal fees and the success fee from your opponent.

“No win, no fee" covers most compensation claims where you have been injured as a result of an accident. CFAs can help in some housing disputes and can also be used in some professional negligence claims.

We can offer a conditional fee agreement if you are likely to recover your costs from your opponent. Your case has to be worth enough for a court to make an order for costs in your favour. If you contact us either by telephone or email, we will assess your case free of charge and let you know if we think it is suitable for a CFA. This initial assessment will be carried out without meeting you. We will then ask you to come to see us with your paperwork so that we can consider your case more carefully. There will be no obligation on either side until the CFA is signed by you and us.

What cases are suitable for a conditional fee agreement (CFA)?

• Accident claims, which are not your fault and where a court will award you more than £1,000.  An injury that is unlikely to heal within a month may well be worth more than £1,000.  If an accident is partly your fault and partly someone else’s it may still be worth enough to be suitable for a CFA.  We can advise you free of charge of whether we think your accident will qualify.
• Disrepair cases against landlords, where the cost of the repairs is likely to exceed £1,000. We will want to satisfy ourselves that your landlord can afford to pay your legal costs.  Once again, if you contact us, we will be able to tell you if your case is likely to qualify.
• Disrepair cases where the work has already been done but the compensation is likely to be more than £5,000. These will be cases where you have been living in very unpleasant housing and you have been complaining about it for many years. Once again we will want to be sure that your landlord can afford to pay your costs.
• Rent arrears cases being brought against you where your landlord has not carried out his or her obligations. The landlord’s failures have to be bad enough to entitle you to compensation of more than the rent arrears. These cases are hard to win but if we think you have a very good chance, we will act for you.
• Cases where you have been let down by a professional such as a solicitor or a surveyor and you have lost at least £5,000. If your case is strong then we can help you with a CFA.

Cases not suitable for a CFA include any case where you are unlikely to recover your costs from your opponent, for example:

• Advice only - in such cases there is no prospect of obtaining a court order for costs
• Small claims - the court does not encourage people to use a solicitor for disputes of low value. For this reason you will not be able to recover legal costs from your opponent for such cases
• Tribunal cases - there are no costs awards for cases brought in the leasehold valuation tribunal.
• Cases with a less than 65% chance of success- we will assess this when we speak to you.
• Housing cases where you are eligible for legal aid - if you have a housing problem and are on a low income, then you will be better served by consulting a legal aid lawyer. You may be able to get free help even if you have a less than 65% chance of success.

Fixed Fee Interviews

If your case is not suitable for a conditional fee agreement, we can offer you a fixed fee one hour interview, followed up by a detailed letter of advice and one telephone call. We have an introductory price of £150.00 plus VAT (currently 20% making a total of £180.00).

If your case is very complex, then it may be unsuitable for a one hour fixed fee interview. We will assess this when you first make contact with us. 

We will never ambush you with a fee that you have not agreed to pay.

Advice and Assistance

If you want us to carry out further work, after a fixed fee interview, for example writing to your opponent or giving you further advice, we will charge £150 an hour plus VAT. We will divide the hour into ten units, so if we spend six minutes on the telephone for you, this will cost £15 plus VAT.  This is a considerably lower rate than most solicitors of our experience and expertise. It reflects the fact that we want to be affordable to people who are not wealthy and do not qualify for legal aid. We are happy to agree a cap on the fee, for example you can ask us at the outset to carry out work up to a particular value and no further.

Privately funded court representation

We charge £200 per hour plus VAT for cases that involve court proceedings. This seems a high hourly rate, but the overheads of a legal practice are very high and it is lower than that most London firms with our level of  expertise.  We recognise that this is unaffordable to most of our clients which is why we offer conditional fee agreements.

Legal Expenses Insurance

If you have house contents insurance, your policy may include legal expenses insurance. Under European law you have a right to choose your own solicitor for any matter that might go to court. This means that you may be able to engage us to take court action for you without the need to pay us out of your own pocket and without a conditional fee agreement

Legal Aid

We no longer offer legal aid. If you are on a very low income you may qualify for free legal aid and you can find a list of solicitors in our area who still offer this service by clicking this here: http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/en/directory/directorysearch.jsp

Regardless of your income, legal aid is not usually available for accident claims and we can help you with these