How much does a work accident solicitor charge?

No win no fee in plain terms

A no win no fee agreement — formally a Conditional Fee Agreement, or CFA — is the standard way workplace injury claims are funded in the UK. The essentials are simple: you pay nothing up front, you pay nothing for the solicitor's time if the claim fails, and if the claim succeeds a defined success fee is deducted from part of your damages. Everything else — hourly time on your file, disbursements, court fees, medical reports — is carried by the firm during the case and normally recovered from the losing defendant at the end.

The effect is to move the financial risk of running the claim from the injured worker onto the solicitor. That is what makes represented work accident claims low-risk in practice, and it is why the CFA model is used in the overwhelming majority of workplace injury cases. See the detailed no win no fee guide for the underlying rules.

The 25% success fee cap

The success fee is the amount the solicitor deducts from your damages if the case wins. It is not open-ended. Under the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 it is capped at 25% of two heads of your award combined — general damages (for pain, suffering and loss of amenity) and past financial losses. Damages for future losses — future loss of earnings, future care, future treatment, future pension loss — are protected and are not subject to the success fee.

A worked example. Take a total award of £20,000, made up of:

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

The success fee is capped at 25% of (£8,000 + £4,000) = £3,000. The £8,000 future-earnings element is untouched. You keep £20,000 minus £3,000 = £17,000.

Not every firm charges the full 25%. Some discount the success fee, particularly on stronger cases. It is a reasonable and important question to ask before you sign anything.

What you pay if you lose

On a standard CFA, you pay the solicitor nothing for their time if the claim fails. Two further layers of protection deal with everything else.

The first is After-the-Event (ATE) insurance. An ATE policy is taken out at the start of the case and covers the disbursements the firm has incurred (medical reports, court fees, expert reports) and the defendant's costs if a costs order is made against you. The premium is normally deferred and self-insuring, which means it is only payable from your damages if you win, and never from your own pocket if you lose.

The second is Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (QOCS) under the Civil Procedure Rules.

QOCS — the court's costs protection

QOCS is a rule that applies to personal injury claims in the civil courts. Its effect is that a losing claimant generally cannot be ordered to pay the defendant's costs, subject to defined exceptions. The main exceptions are fundamental dishonesty (usually exaggeration of injury or financial loss), claims struck out as an abuse of process, and failure to beat a defendant's Part 36 offer — where the defendant can recover post-offer costs, but only up to the level of damages awarded.

Between QOCS and ATE, a properly-run workplace injury claim on a CFA is close to risk-free for the injured person. Read the guide on Part 36 offers for how the offer regime affects costs.

What the losing employer's insurer pays

When a claim succeeds, the solicitor's costs are largely paid by the losing party — the employer's liability insurer — under a standard costs order. Base costs (the firm's hourly rates for the work done) and disbursements (medical reports, court fees, ATE premium where recoverable) are recovered from the insurer separately, on top of your damages.

The success fee (up to 25% of the capped heads described above) is the part deducted from your compensation. That is a deliberate design of the post-LASPO funding regime: the injured worker contributes a defined, capped share of the recovered damages towards the risk the solicitor carried, while the bulk of the legal costs comes from the losing insurer.

Questions to ask before you sign

Any regulated firm will answer these in writing:

• Is the success fee the full 25% or discounted?
• Is the ATE premium deferred and self-insuring — never payable from my own pocket if I lose?
• Are there any other deductions you propose to take from my compensation?
• Are there any circumstances in which I could become personally liable for costs?
• What happens to my file — and to any accrued fees — if I decide to switch firms later?

For how to weigh those answers, see how to choose a work accident solicitor. For the wider strategic questions about when to settle, see the guides on whether to accept the first offer and the interaction with Part 36 offers.

Are there any up-front costs?

On a standard CFA with ATE insurance, no. Nothing to pay for the solicitor's time. Nothing to pay for medical reports, court fees or other disbursements while the case runs. Nothing to pay if the case fails. The only sum you contribute is the capped success fee, from part of your damages, and only if you win.

If a firm asks you for money up front on a workplace injury claim, ask why in writing. On a properly-structured no win no fee arrangement, you should not need to. To put the fee model in the wider context of how much a work accident claim is typically worth, see the compensation amounts guide, and for the broader picture of what a solicitor actually does for the fee, see what a work accident solicitor does.

Frequently asked questions

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