By: Julia Aidan
Submitted: 2010-04-23 22:25:12 | Word Count: 546
Accidents are unfortunate occurrences that happen suddenly without any apparent cause, at any time or any place resulting in injury to the victim. Injuries are suffered in accidents at workplaces, roads, trips or falls on damages pavement, criminal acts or medical negligence. If you have suffered a personal injury for no fault of yours, you can lodge a personal injury claim in the appropriate legal forum and claim compensation.
To pursue a personal injury claim case, you may choose to be represented by either a claims management company or specialist solicitors who operate on a no win, no fee basis. The legal sector usually offers these kinds of conditional fee arrangements to settle personal injury claim cases. Since, the standard costs of retaining a solicitor is quite high and is beyond the reach of many, this seems to be a perfect solution.
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"No Win, No Fee" is basically a term used to describe the Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) between a law firm and a client in a Personal Injury claim. This implies that a claimant can secure legal representation to lodge and pursue their claim and technically they do not have to pay their lawyer's costs in case they lose the case. On the other hand, if the lawyer wins the case, they will be entitled to their fees plus an uplift referred to as a success fee.
In cases where the client wins personal injury claims, the courts or the losing party's insurers make an award of damages. Apart from the compensation, the insurer will have to pay the client's legal costs including success fees if any, along with other expenses. Most of the Conditional Fee Agreements assure the client of not having to pay anything and receive 100 percent of the compensation awarded on their claim.
When a no win, no fee arrangement or CFA is entered into in a case of personal injury claim, the lawyer acting on behalf of the client normally obtains an After The Event (ATE) insurance. This type of insurance is designed to protect the client from the risk of legal costs arising either from their own lawyer or costs incurred by the opposing party in a personal injury case in the event of the same being discontinued or lost in trial.
Solicitors and claims companies need to cover their costs and cannot work for free. If the claimant wins the case and is awarded compensation by the court, then the losing side may be ordered to pay their costs or the claimant may have agreed to pay costs after they win the case. But what happens in case a claim is rejected or is discontinued. In such circumstances the ATE insurance comes to the rescue of the claimant and the insurance policy covers the fees and other legal costs of the lawyer.
Before offering a no win, no fee agreement, most law firms and solicitors offer free consultation to evaluate the soundness of a case and the possibility of winning. This is to assure them to be able to recover their fees either from the claimant or from the opposing party's insurance company.
Author Resource:-
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