No win no fee

[user1486133359]

Any legal on here can advise. We are looking at taking legal action on no win no fee. The solicitor who said they will do have told us we pay nothing to them. If we win they claim there expenses from the company we are trying to take action against. However the contract the solicitor has sent us list's all charges. They say its a standard law society agreement. I'm concerned if we sign it we could be liable for costs. The solicitor has emailed separately to say no charges to us win or lose. Any advice? Thanks.

Their costs are normally deducted from any payout but if you decide not to proceed after instruction you may be liable for charges.

Make sure you get insurance in case you lose and have an order for costs made against you.

Have you checked if your hime / car legal cover insurance covers it ?

We've not signed anything yet. The solicitor called me and said win or lose we pay nothing and get 100% of payout as they get their money from who we claim against. It's just the contract says different.

If you lose will you be liable for the other party's costs?

Hi Op - the claim that the solicitor made that you won’t pay charges win or lose makes absolutely no sense.
They aren’t working for free.
If you sign an agreement and lose you pay nothing.
If you win, they take the costs from the “winnings” - they do have to tell you their costs and charges and will update you to tell you how much costs are at particular junctures but you don’t have to “front” the money / if that makes sense.
If you drop out of the case they can get their costs from you.
The premise is that the claimant doesn’t pay until they win. If they don’t win, no costs are recovered by the firm. So they usually only take cases with a high chance of success.

"He called me and said" is a bit worrying. You need to get everything in writing.

Also ask clearly: "under what circumstances would I become liable to pay the costs?"

Remember, it's no win no fee, not no win no cost.

Make sure you take out 'After The Event' insurance, so that, if you lose, you won't have to pay the other sides costs.

I expect he means that if you win they'll pursue costs against the other side but in most cases (you don't say what kind of a case yours is, personal injury, employment, housing etc) it's far from a given that this will be awarded and if it's not then usually you would have to pay your solicitor's costs from your 'winnings'/settlement. In some cases the costs are so high as to virtually wipe out the compensation.

Costs are more frequently awarded in some types cases than others, e.g. in the family courts costs are often only awarded if the other party has behaved particularly badly e.g. refused reasonable offer of settlement or wasted the court's time, as the court isn't usually in the business of awarding sums of the money the person has no means of paying. But e.g. a personal injury claim against an insurance company may be different. Either way I would have thought it more likely that the contract means where possible they'll recover their costs from the other side, ideally as part of a settlement rather than going to court as this increases costs a lot, but if not or if you behave unreasonably (e.g. you have exaggerated your case or fail to turn up to court), then you'll have to pay. I suppose there were some types of claims e.g. missold PPI that had fee schedules/costs built in so if yours is one of these then maybe what the solicitor is saying is correct, but in that case he should be prepared to put it in writing, either in the contract or in an email clearly setting out the circumstances where you will and won't have to pay?

The solicitor called me and said win or lose we pay nothing and get 100% of payout as they get their money from who we claim against. It's just the contract says different.

Then ask them to put that in writing, in the form of a contract you can sign.

If they can't or won't do that, you might ask them why not.

Better to get it all clear in advance of incurring any costs.

Might be worth looking a bit on Mumsnet. There was a thread where someone and their partner were advised by their no win no fee Solicitor to withdraw their claim before their court date which they did. They were then billed.
I would be going by what the contract says rather than what is being said verbally.

I remember this thread, any idea what the outcome was?

OP on that one didn’t return. I gave some guidance on it. It relates to an RTA where OP discontinued the day or so before Trial. I’ll try to find the link as I was interested in that one too. Re this issue, OP you need to tell us what type of claim it is as different rules apply to different scenarios.

It was this thread…

That's the one. I didn't think that the op came back. Thanks.

Usually with no win no fee you won't end up out of pocket. They either claim costs from the other side, or take a percentage of your award.

However, buried in the small print of the contract are a lot of clauses about how if you pull out, don't submit info in a timely manner, or behave in any other way that is likely to cause you to lose or have a lower payout, you may be liable for costs. These costs are then outlined. That's probably what you're seeing here.

I have no idea how often the solicitors actually choose to make a claim against you under these clauses (I would think not often or you'd hear about it more), but yes, it's possible you can be charged fees if you lose.

Read the thread I referred to above. It does happen!

Did ask why they don't have a contract to say what he told me and came back with this.

We charge the other side (the negligent party) if we win for the time we have spent on the case. This is why there are hourly rates in the contract.

If we don't win we don't charge you as it is no win no fee. Our fees are conditional upon success.

If the case is unsuccessful we do not charge you anything.

If the case wins we bill the fees we have incurred to the other side, you do not have to pay them as the other side (negligent party) pays them.

It is complex but we cannot set the hourly rates to zero as we would then not be able charge the negligent party anything if we won the case.

That sounds fair enough @user1486133359

I'd still want to know what happens if you win, but if costs are not awarded and if the award you get is nugatory?

I've decided not to go ahead to many questions.
Thanks everyone for your help and advice.