What Factors Determine the Best No Win No Fee Solicitors for a Claim?

No Win No Fee solicitors could help you claim compensation. Learn how the claims process works in this guide.

You are owed a duty of care at work, on the roads and in public spaces. If this duty of care is breached and you are injured as a result, you might have an eligible claim. We discuss the duty of care you are owed and ways in which it could be breached. Also, we look at the legislation that guides the different areas.

In addition, we explore compensation you could claim with examples from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). We also look at potential costs you could recover under the special damages head.

Following an injury at work caused by employer negligence, the actions you take could help strengthen your claim. We explore what you could have done after an accident and how this might help your claim.

The claims process could seem easier with No Win No Fee solicitors. We explore Conditional Fee Agreements and why one might prove beneficial for you.

Our advisors are available to discuss your injuries due to a third party’s negligence.

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A guide to using the services of No Win No Fee solicitors

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Guidance – No Win No Fee Solicitors
How To Calculate Compensation For A Personal Injury Claim
Understanding Accident Claims That Require No Win No Fee Solicitors
How Might A Personal Injury Happen?
How Much Do I Pay My No Win No Fee Lawyer?
More Information – No Win No Fee Solicitors

Guidance – No Win No Fee Solicitors

No Win No Fee solicitors offer their services under No Win No Fee agreements. Essentially, you don’t have to pay the solicitor’s fee if the claim fails.

You might want to hire No Win No Fee solicitors if you’ve been injured due to third-party negligence. Whether you are on the roads, in a public place, or at work, you are owed a duty of care. Another party breaching this duty of care could result in injuries. We will have a look at what this duty of care is and how it could be breached later in this article.

Free legal advice is available from our advisors.

How Often Do Accidents Happen?

Accidents are not uncommon in the workplace, on the roads and in public.

Settlements recorded by the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) information are collected by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). The CRU recovers social security benefits where certain successful civil litigation claims have been made and compensated for losses. We can use their data to see how prevalent accidents that lead to claims could be.

They calculate their year from 1st April to 31st March. For 2021 to 2022, they had:

63,071 employer settlements
447,629 motor settlements
62,911 public settlements

These figures aren’t reflective of all claims, just those where the CRU was required to recover some benefits.

How To Calculate Compensation For A Personal Injury Claim

No Win No Fee solicitors could help calculate how much compensation you could claim. However, we have provided a few examples in this guide.

As part of the personal injury claims process, you might be invited to an independent medical assessment. A full range of your injuries and what impact you’ve experienced due to them is required to more accurately claim.

Your award could come with two heads: general damages and special damages. We explain each head below.

General Damages

The head of your claim that compensates for your injuries and any connected psychological distress is called general damages. The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) is a document that legal professionals use to help assign value to your injuries. The JCG contains information on injuries and the compensation brackets they could bring in. In the table below are examples from the 16th Edition of the JCG released in April 2022.

Injury	Potential Compensation	Notes
Moderately severe brain damage	£219,070 to £282,010	Serious disability with substantial dependence and need for care.
Severe back injuries (i)	£91,090 to £160,980	Very serious consequences extending beyond the back, such as with sexual dysfunction, from damage to the spinal cord and nerve roots.
Traumatic injury to digestive system (i)	£43,010 to £61,910	Continuing pain and discomfort from severe damage.
Severe leg injuries (iii)	£39,200 to £54,830	Serious: Instability and prolonged treatment from serious compound or comminuted fractures.
Chest injuries (c)	£31,310 to £54,830	Continuing disability from damage to chest and lungs.
Partial hearing loss and/or tinnitus (i)	£29,710 to £45,540	Noise-induced hearing loss with severe tinnitus.
Moderately severe psychiatric damage	£19,070 to £54,830	Significant problems coping with life, but with an optimistic prognosis.
Facial injuries (b)	£14,900 to £23,950	Permanent facial disfigurement from multiple facial bone fractures.
Serious shoulder injuries	£12,770 to £19,200	Pain and sensory problems travelling down the forearm from dislocation and lower brachial plexus injury.
Wrist injuries (c)	£12,590 to £24,500	Some permanent disability from less severe injuries.

Special Damages

The head of your claim that recovers costs that occurred due to your injuries is called special damages. To claim under this head, however, you will need to supply cost evidence. This could look like saving receipts for any purchases made that you wouldn’t make if not for the injury, such as specialist makeup to conceal scars.

Costs you could recover include:

Travel expenses (to and from medical appointments, for example)
Additional medical costs
Loss of earnings

Our advisors can estimate your general damages and discuss what you could claim under special damages.

Understanding Accident Claims That Require No Win No Fee Solicitors

As already mentioned in this guide, in order to claim, you will need to prove you were owed a duty of care and this was breached. Below, we provide examples of places where you are owed a duty of care alongside what the duty of care means in that particular space.

At Work

Your employer owes all their employees a duty of care under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. What this means is that your employer must take reasonably practicable steps to reduce risks to the workforce. If they fail to do so and you are injured in an accident at work you might have an eligible claim.

Reasonable steps could look like:

Required equipment checks. Equipment needs to be safe to operate.
Free training. Relevant and useful training should be provided and kept up-to-date. Bringing in new machinery also requires training to update skills. Hand injuries could occur, for example, if employees don’t realise that a new machine has sharp cutting tools that could trap their fingers.
Adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). If you work on a construction site, for example, you might need a hardhat to avoid head injuries if an object falls from a height.

In Public

Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, anyone accessing a public place is owed a duty of care by the owner or occupier of that space. The owner or occupier must take reasonable steps to reduce the risk to members of the public accessing that space.

This could look like:

Signposting hazards, such as a step. Otherwise, someone could trip and break a bone.
Ensure staircases are free of clutter and have safe-to-use handrails. Someone could fall and break their bones if staircases are not kept safe.

Under the Highways Act 1980 you are also owed a duty of care. Potholes, for example, can cause a road traffic accident. If the council has been alerted to the pothole, it’s on a road they control and they failed to take action in a timely manner, you might be eligible for compensation. You’d need to show that it caused the accident and your injury.

On the Roads

Road users owe each other a duty of care under the Road Traffic Act 1988. Breaching it could result in injuries for car drivers and their occupants, pedestrians, motorcycle users and other road users.

This could look like:

Vehicle maintenance. If the brakes are faulty, for example, you may not be able to stop in time to avoid an accident. Also, this could mean ensuring your car is clean. Mud, for example, could obstruct the lights.
Signalling. It’s important to let other road users know which way you’re turning in order to prevent collisions.

Our advisors can discuss the circumstances leading up to your injuries and who was responsible.

How Might A Personal Injury Happen?

Injuries could occur when a third party breaches their duty of care. Following an injury, the actions you take could strengthen your claim, should you wish to claim. This is because you must be able to prove you were owed a duty of care and it was breached, which led to your injuries.

You could:

Seek medical assistance.
Note witness contact details.
Take photographs of the accident scene and/or your injuries.
Seek legal advice.

Our advisors can discuss what evidence you could submit to strengthen your claim.

How Much Do I Pay My No Win No Fee Lawyer?

No Win No Fee solicitors could prove beneficial towards your claim. They can help by making the legal process seem easier for you. Legal representation has, traditionally, been out of reach for a lot of people due to the costs. With No Win No Fee solicitors, however, you can have legal representation while minimising the financial risk of funding their services.

An upfront solicitor’s fee isn’t paid. A success fee is payable instead, which is legally capped. This will be taken from the award of successful claims. If the claim doesn’t win, you don’t have to pay the success fee at all.

You may also hear your No Win No Fee solicitors refer to the arrangement as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

Get Advice On No Win No Fee Solicitors

Free legal advice is available from our advisors. If you are undecided about whether No Win No Fee solicitors are right for your potential claim, our advisors could help. An estimate of your general damages could be worked out based on your injuries. In addition, they could advise on what you could claim under special damages and what proof you could present to recover costs. Our panel of personal injury solicitors could look at eligible claims.

Phone the number at the top of the screen.
Begin your claim online
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More Information – No Win No Fee Solicitors

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Publisher Ruth Vaughn

Writer Danielle Ball