No win, no fee — explained.

Where the rules come from

Modern UK no-win-no-fee work is governed by:

• The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (s.58), which permits CFAs.
• The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, which sets the 25% damages cap for personal injury claims.
• The Damages-Based Agreements Regulations 2013, governing alternative DBA funding.
• CPR Parts 44–47 on costs, and CPR 44.13–44.17 on Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (QOCS).
• SRA Standards and Regulations, which require transparency on fees and a written client care letter.

What a CFA actually is

A CFA is a regulated written agreement between you and your solicitor with three core terms: I will run your claim; if I lose, you owe me nothing for my time; if I win, I take an agreed percentage of certain heads of your damages as a success fee, plus my standard hourly costs from the losing defendant.

Solicitors take on CFAs only where they assess the claim has reasonable prospects of success — usually 60% or better. Cases below that threshold are turned down, which is why a free initial review is genuinely free: solicitors who only earn if they win cannot afford to take weak cases.

What you pay if you win — the 25% cap

The success fee is capped by statute at 25% of (a) general damages plus (b) past financial losses. Future losses (future earnings, future care, future pension) are protected and untouched. The rest of your solicitor's costs — their hourly rates and disbursements — are normally paid by the losing defendant under standard costs orders.

Worked example. A £20,000 award made up of:

• £8,000 general damages (pain, suffering, loss of amenity)
• £4,000 past loss of earnings
• £8,000 future loss of earnings

Maximum success fee = 25% of (£8,000 + £4,000) = £3,000. You receive £17,000, plus the £8,000 future-loss element in full = £20,000 less £3,000 = £17,000 in total to you.

What you pay if you lose

You pay your solicitor nothing for their time. An After-the-Event (ATE) insurance policy, arranged at the start, covers the defendant's costs and the disbursements your solicitor incurred (medical reports, expert fees, court fees). The premium is normally fully deferred and self-insuring — only payable from your damages if you win, and never from your own pocket if you lose.

QOCS — your costs protection from the court

UK personal injury claims are also protected by Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (QOCS) under CPR 44.13–44.17. Even without ATE in place, a losing claimant generally cannot be ordered to pay the defendant's costs — provided the claim was brought honestly and was not struck out as fundamentally dishonest, struck out as an abuse of process, or made for someone else's financial benefit.

QOCS does not protect against:

• Findings of fundamental dishonesty (CPR 44.16(1) — usually exaggeration of injury or losses).
• Mixed claims — for example a personal injury claim run alongside a non-PI commercial claim.
• Failure to beat the defendant's Part 36 offer (the defendant can still recover post-offer costs, capped at the level of damages awarded).

DBAs and hybrid funding

Damages-Based Agreements are an alternative under which the lawyer takes an agreed percentage (capped at 50% in commercial cases, 25% in PI) of damages. They are far less common than CFAs in workplace injury work because the rules on hybrid funding are restrictive.

Some firms offer "hybrid CFAs" with a discounted hourly rate plus a smaller success fee, or staged success fees that increase if the case progresses to trial.

Things to ask before you sign

• Is the success fee the full 25% or have you discounted it?
• Is the ATE premium fully deferred and self-insuring, and what is the headline figure?
• Are you regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority — what is your SRA roll number?
• How many workplace injury claims like mine have you settled in the last 12 months?
• Who personally will run my file day-to-day, what is their grade (solicitor, paralegal, legal executive) and who supervises them?
• What happens to my file if I become unhappy — can I transfer to another firm, and what would I owe?
• Will you put the proposed Schedule of Loss to me before serving it, so I can check the figures?
• What proportion of your CFA cases settle pre-issue, vs. issued, vs. trial?

Red flags — when to walk away

• An unsolicited cold call about an accident you never reported.
• Pressure to sign a CFA on the same call without seeing the agreement.
• An offer of cash or vouchers in exchange for instructing a particular firm (a regulatory breach).
• A refusal to disclose the SRA roll number or the firm's regulator.
• A fee structure that takes more than 25% of general damages and past losses combined.

What CFAs do not cover

A CFA covers the named civil claim against the at-fault party. It does not cover unrelated work — for example a separate employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal, a complaint to the HSE or a criminal-injuries application to CICA. Those are usually separate retainers, sometimes funded under their own CFAs.

Read more about how the wider claims process works or check the time limits that apply.

See also: claim types · how a claim works · compensation amounts.