We are a nationwide network of personal injury experts dealing in UK product liability and consumer act law. All of our lawyers offer their services on a no win no fee basis. If you have been injured or become ill due to substandard consumer goods or as a result of defective pharmaceutical drugs or medical devices, you may be eligible to claim damages from the manufacturer. If you would like free advice from personal injury experts, use the helpline or complete the contact form and a member of The Law Society panel of personal injury experts will contact you shortly. You will be under no obligation to proceed further after speaking with one of our experts.
No win no fee arrangements which are formally known as conditional fee arrangements (CFA), were first introduced in 1995. The intention of introducing the no win no fee scheme was to remove Legal Aid for most personal injury cases which eventually happened in 1998. Under the CFA scheme, a solicitor who takes a case will usually only receive payment for legal costs if the compensation claim is successful. If the case is lost, the solicitor must write off all legal costs accrued and he will not get paid anything at all. Legal aid may be available in cases where it is in the public interest but this usually involves group litigation where a large number of people pursue a consumer act claim together.
There are a number of important matters which must be considered in relation to CFA’s used for consumer act and other defective product claims as solicitors have a substantial discretion on the terms and conditions. You should be careful when reading the terms and conditions. Some will fund and finance every part of the claim including insurance, medical records charges, medical reports and court fees. Others, on the other hand, will offer the actual legal fee (time spent on the case) on a no win no fee basis but will require the client to pay for all disbursements up front. Some solicitors will make arrangements for this case financing through a loan arranged in the client’s name which is the clients personal responsibility. In the event that the case is lost then this type of arrangement has the potential for the client to lose any money paid out on disbursements.
It should also be noted that the loser of any legal case is usually required to pay the legal costs, expenses and fees of the winning side. If your case is unsuccessful, you may be ordered by the court to pay the fees for the winning side. This problem is resolved by the use of ‘after the event’ insurance which covers the loser against the responsibility of being ordered to pay the winners costs. This insurance is paid for by the solicitor which makes our claims completely risk free.
If you would like to discuss your potential claim with a specialist either use the helpline or fill out and send the contact form and we will call you immediately to provide you with free, no-obligation legal advice. If you decide not to pursue legal action, you are under no obligation to do so and will not be charged a penny.
24/7 HELPLINE 0845 009 2017