"No Win, No Fee"

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Leo661

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4 September 2020
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I have started an action (Injury) against my old employer!

The law firm is working under "No win, No fee" basis, my question is does this mean that the law firm is very confident in a win??

I heard that a law firms will not take on "no win no fee" if they can't win

thank you in advance
 

Rob Legat - SBPL

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16 February 2017
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As a disclaimer, I don’t do ‘no win, no fee‘, nor do I do personal injuries or workers compensation cases. So, consider this an educated outsider’s perspective.

Taking on a ‘no win, no fee’ case is always a gamble for a law firm. This is because, as the name suggests, if there is no win then they don’t get paid. Taking on that amount of risk in your day to day business is not good sense, so they limit their risk in a number of ways:
- Uplift fees. This is an allowable increase in fees over time to offset the fact that the law firm has had to perform work and incur expenses for an often lengthy time period without payment. Think of it like interest for late payment;
- Having a specific definition of ‘win’. What you think of as winning isn’t necessarily what constitutes winning for the purposes of getting the fee. For example, if a reasonable settlement offer is made this can be considered a sufficient ‘win’ to trigger the fee being paid. If you refuse to accept the settlement, you can become liable for payment of the incurred fees (i.e. the ‘no win, no fee’ status goes out the door); and
- They don’t take cases which they don’t think they can get to the ‘win’ (see above point).
 

Rod

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I'd also expect to see 'other fees' you need to pay regardless. Look for something called disbursements in your agreement, I suspect you'll be paying those fees regardless of win or lose.
 

YYT

Member
21 August 2021
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I'd also expect to see 'other fees' you need to pay regardless. Look for something called disbursements in your agreement, I suspect you'll be paying those fees regardless of win or lose.
Hi Rod. This may depend on the firm. In Queensland at least, many firms, such as Roche Legal, cover disbursements in the event of a loss as part of the no win no fee offer. It is certainly an important question to ask at the outset.