Conditional Fee Arrangements

These are commonly known as "no win - no fee" arrangements.  This firm operates these Agreements in suitable cases. 

The basis of the Agreement is that the Solicitor takes a risk of not getting paid if you lose the case, and to balance this risk he asks for a percentage increase in his costs if you win.

The "no fee" relates to Solicitors' costs, but arrangements have still to be made to pay for doctors' reports and barristers' opinions under a loan scheme or insurance policy if the client does not have money available to pay for these. 

It is essential that these reports are supportive of the case if a CFA(Conditional Fee Agreement) is to be entered into (and Dr Lowings' expert knowledge of medical negligence matters helps to save clients the expense of obtaining reports in cases which are hopeless, but this is not immediately obvious to the non-medically qualified).

In the event that the case is successful most of these costs would be recovered from the Defendants but some of the increase in solicitors' costs may not be recoverable and this deficit would come out of your damages.  The American version, a Contingency Fee Agreement allows for the lawyer to take a straight percentage of your damages which is England is considered unfair. 

The danger of losing your case is that whilst you will owe your own solicitor nothing for the work that he has done, you may be required to pay your opponent's solicitors' costs in full which may be just as much, or more.  Hence the need for insurance cover, which the law says you must have if you are to issue court proceedings. 

The insurance cover may be provided by one of a number of companies and we are constantly reviewing those available.  They can cost as little as £75 in a road traffic accident case, going up to £2,000-£3,000+ in medical negligence cases. 

In the future, CFAs will be the only way to get justice for the majority of Claimants.