By Jo Anderson. Last Updated 2nd January 2024. If you’d like to learn about success fees in personal injury claims, you’ve found the right page.
Accident Claims UK is a firm of solicitors specialising in No Win No Fee personal injury claims. On this page, we explain what a success fee is, why they apply and how much they could be in relation to your claim.
If you’d like to get advice over the phone, however, we can help. Simply call us on the number at the top of this page to get started.
Select A Section
- What Is A Success Fee?
- Changes To Success Fees From 2012
- How Much Do No Win No Fee Solicitors Charge?
- How Are Claims Assessed?
- Injury Compensation Calculator UK
- Are There Time Limits To Begin Your Claim?
- Why Choose Us To Handle Your Claim?
- Contact A Solicitor
- Success Fee FAQs
What Is A Success Fee?
So, what is a success fee?
Generally speaking, success fees are fees that a lawyer or solicitor charges if a case is won. In a No Win No Fee arrangement, a success fee is the compensation that the lawyer or solicitor receives for their work if the case is successful.
This fee is a percentage of the compensation awarded to the client and is designed to account for the lawyer or solicitor’s risk they take on by handling the case on a No Win No Fee basis; the percentage that is taken will be proportionate to the work they’ve done.
Such fees can vary depending on the type of case, the lawyer or solicitor’s experience and qualifications, and other factors. It’s important to fully understand the terms of a No Win No Fee contract and the associated fees before signing it.
It is important to get up-to-date information if you intend to begin a case with the help of a lawyer. You can speak to an advisor on our helpline to learn more about this or carry on reading to the next section.
Changes To Success Fees From 2012
Due to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, from 1 April 2013, the costs of after-the-event (ATE) insurance and success fees in personal injury claims were no longer covered by the defendant in a successful claim. They could still cover other legal costs due to the claim because they have been deemed liable for the injury. However, the success fee and ATE insurance would need to be covered by you, the claimant, if the claim is successful.
The definitions of these are as follows:
- A success fee is the amount of compensation a personal injury lawyer can take to cover their general services if your claim is successful. The success fee percentage is capped at 25% by law, meaning that your lawyer or solicitor can only take up to 25% of your compensation.
- ATE insurance is to cover the claimant for legal costs if the claim is unsuccessful. It’s a type of legal expenses insurance policy. This is to cover the defendant’s legal costs. You would need to pay these if you were deemed liable.
The importance of both of these will be explained to you before you agree to work with your personal injury solicitor. They will clearly explain how the claims process works and judge the risks involved in taking your case.
Success fees in personal injury claims can be higher if the solicitor deems that your claim is a larger risk or needs a greater amount of work. However, as stated above, this is capped at 25% of your compensation as per regulations set by The Ministry of Justice.
How Much Do No Win No Fee Solicitors Charge?
As we have mentioned, when it comes to solicitors fees for personal injury claims, for claims in England and Wales, in accordance with the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, they are capped. The No Win No Fee percentage cap in England and Wales is set at 25% of the total settlement. However, solicitor fees for personal injury claims in Scotland and Northern Ireland may differ.
Do Personal Injury Solicitors Always Charge 25% Or Do They Offer Discounts?
As previously mentioned, due to the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, it is your responsibility to pay your solicitors success fee in a personal injury claim.
If your solicitor has agreed to work with you under the terms of a No Win No Fee agreement, generally, there are two terms of business that could be used; a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) or a Damage Based Agreement (DBA). If a CFA is used, the maximum percentage that your solicitor can take as this fee is capped at 25%.
You may be wondering whether you could receive a discounted success fee rate. Generally, most solicitors will charge the full 25% for success fees. However, it may be worth asking your solicitor if you could receive a discount, as they may be able to offer this to you.
To learn more about success fees and how they are calculated, please call an advisor. They will be happy to answer any questions you might have.
How Much Do No Win No Fee Lawyers Take For Scottish Personal Injury Claims?
You may be wondering about solicitor fees for personal injury claims made in Scotland. A solicitor can offer to represent your claim under a Speculative Fee Agreement or a Damages Based Agreement. This is as per the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018. It generally means there will be no fees for you to pay for your solicitor’s services in the event your claim is unsuccessful.
If your claim is successful, this usually means that your solicitor can take a legally capped percentage of the compensation. This is called a success fee. However, before you enter into an agreement, any fees will be discussed with you.
To learn more about different types of agreements under No Win No Fee and the percentage that can be taken following a successful claim, get in touch with our team. They can provide further guidance on how much No Win No Fee lawyers take in the UK.
How Are Claims Assessed?
If you bring your case to a personal injury solicitor, they will weigh up the potential risks involved. After all, they won’t want to waste anyone’s time seeking compensation when the odds of a successful outcome are poor.
Therefore, they often use their previous experience and contact third parties who can help give them an assessment of your case’s viability. Ultimately, success fees in personal injury claims can help keep establishments, like No Win No Fee law firms, afloat.
Previously, unsuccessful cases could lead to a solicitor having to cover their legal costs. Even with the success fees taken from successful claims, if the unsuccessful claims are drawn-out cases that require court proceedings, it could negate any profit they’ve made from the successful ones.
As such, a CFA is widely regarded as being the best of both worlds. With a successful claim, the personal injury lawyer takes enough of the compensation for their work while you still receive a sizeable amount of compensation.
You could claim for many types of incidents that were caused by third-party negligence. For instance, if you’ve been injured due to a car accident, whether it’s caused by a faulty traffic light or a drunk driver colliding with your vehicle, causing you brain damage, you may be able to claim. Contact us online or over the phone for free using the details above.
Injury Compensation Calculator UK
Every personal injury claim is assessed individually.
The first part of your claim is called general damages. This seeks to compensate you for your pain and suffering and will partly depend on factors such as the severity of your injury and whether it has caused any long-term issues. If you are eligible to claim special damages, this could also potentially influence your final payout.
The table below shows figures from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document is used by legal professionals to help value claims and was last updated in 2022. The JCG amounts do not consider success fees or special damages.
Compensation Calculator
| Area of Injury | Amount of Compensation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries with associated financial losses. | Up to £1,000,000+ | A combination of serious injuries causing pain, suffering and financial losses, such as loss of income. |
| Back Injuries: (a) Severe (i) | £91,090 to £160,980 | Cases in this bracket are the more severe back injuries involving nerve root and spinal cord damage, leading to a combination of very serious consequences not usually associated with back injuries. |
| Epilepsy: (a) | £102,000 to £150,110 | Established grand mal epilepsy occurs. |
| Foot Injuries: (d) Severe | £41,970 to £70,030 | Mobility restrictions that are of a substantial nature or permanent pain that is considerable to both feet. It may also include a single foot injury that is unusually severe, such as severe degloving. |
| Knee Injuries: (a) Severe (ii) | £52,120 to £69,730 | Constant pain and movement limitations from a leg fracture that extends into the knee. This will be permanent and the claimant may be prone to osteoarthritis as a result. |
| Hand Injuries: (e) Serious Hand Injuries | £29,000 to £61,910 | Hands or hand will be reduced to about 50 % capacity. |
| Injuries to the Pelvis and Hips: (a) Severe (iii) | £39,170 to £52,500 | Numerous injuries that can happen to the hips. These include fractures requiring hip replacement surgery. |
| Shoulder Injuries: (a) Severe | £19,200 to £48,030 | Typically, these occur with neck injuries and involve a significant disability as the result of serious damage to the brachial plexus. |
| Jaw Fracture (i) | £30,490 to £45,540 | Prolonged treatment following multiple fractures that are serious. Also, permanent disabilities such as eating restrictions and severe pain. |
| Injuries to the Elbow: (c) Moderate or Minor Injury | Up to £12,590 | Many injuries that don’t cause permanent damage or functioning impairments, such as tennis elbow, fractures or lacerations. |
Special Damages
Special damages seek to recover costs associated with your injury. To claim special damages, you will need evidence such as receipts and bank statements.
Examples of special damages:
- Loss of earnings.
- Medical expenses.
- Travel costs.
- Home adaptations.
- Vehicle adaptations.
To discuss examples of success fees and compensation payouts, get in touch with our advisors. They can talk about how success fees are deducted and provide you with examples of how compensation payouts are calculated.
Are There Time Limits To Begin Your Claim?
You may be wondering, is there a personal injury claims time limit?
The answer is yes. Usually, you have either three years or three years from the date you’ve been made aware that the injury was due to negligence to start a claim. The latter option is usually for people who have suffered internal injuries that they were unaware of until years after the event. This could be the case, for instance, if you’ve worked with asbestos, as this could lead to lung disease.
Exceptions to be aware of
There are, however, exceptions to the above. If, for example, your child suffers an injury due to third-party negligence, they generally have three years from the date of their eighteenth birthday to begin claims proceedings. However, if you’d like to claim on their behalf before then, you could be appointed as their litigation friend.
Furthermore, if a person doesn’t have the mental capacity to claim, someone else can do so on their behalf without the pressure of needing to do it by a specific time. This is to say that the above time limit doesn’t apply in these circumstances. However, if the person recovers mental capacity, they would have three years to claim from the date of their recovery.
This is all established in the Limitation Act 1980.
Why Choose Us To Handle Your Claim?
Our advisors offer free legal advice and are available 24/7 so, whether you want to know about the different types of public injury claims or want to know how to claim compensation, you can call us at a time that works for you. They can tell if you’re eligible to claim and provide you with a reliable compensation estimate.
No Win No Fee solicitors make seeking legal justice more affordable to people who might not be able fund a solicitor’s services. In certain cases, they can even offer a lower success fee, meaning just 15% of your compensation could be taken as payment instead of the standard 25%.
Contact A Solicitor
Contact our team at a time that works for you to see if you could potentially receive compensation.
- Call us on 0800 073 8801
- Use the Live Chat window that’s on your screen to write to us.
- Contact us on our website
Useful Links
To know more about personal injury claims, please use the links below.
- broken a bone NHS webpage
- work-related injury statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website.
- how many personal injury claims go to court?”
- accident on the street
- Barbed Wire Accident Claims Guide
- We also have guides on medical negligence claims, including how to claim for a GP misdiagnosis.
Success Fee FAQs
Answers to FAQ’s about personal injury claims can be found below.
What is a reasonable success fee?
It depends on the extent of work that the personal injury solicitor is doing to build your case. The Ministry of Justice has ruled that they cannot take more than 25% of your compensation for a personal injury claim.
Are success fees recoverable?
No, they’re not recoverable from the other side as they’re seen as a necessary payment for the claimant in the event of a successful claim.
What percentage of personal injury claims are settled?
The vast majority of personal injury claims are settled without going to court. It depends on factors such as whether the defendant is willing to admit liability for the injury you’ve sustained.
What is a success fee in a personal injury claim?
If you hire a solicitor who offers No Win No Fee arrangements, such as a Conditional Fee Agreement, you will need to pay a success fee if the claim succeeds.
Top Tips For A Lower Success Fee
As per the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, the success fee is capped at 25%. This this is the maximum a solicitor can take from your compensation if your claim succeeds. However, you could ask for a lower percentage.
What could impact the success fee in a personal injury claim?
There is a legal cap on the success fee in personal injury claims a solicitor could ask for. They could not ask for more than 25% of your total settlement. Further to this, the success of your claim could affect your success fee. If your claim is, for some reason, unsuccessful, you wouldn’t need to pay the success fee.
Where can I get more guidance on success fees?
Do you need additional information about success fees in personal injury claims? If so, please call on the number above.