A solicitor has offered to take your case on "no win, no fee". It sounds like free representation. Lose, and you pay nothing. In practice there can still be insurance premiums, expenses and exit costs, so the deal is rarely as risk-free as it sounds.
Some of that cost is in the small print, and the rest from a gap between what you want from your case and what pays your lawyer.
How does no win, no fee work?
No win, no fee is available for most civil claims, though not for criminal or family cases. It is most common in injury and housing disrepair claims. The usual form is a conditional fee agreement, or CFA, lawful since section 58 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. You usually pay the firm nothing if you lose. If you win, the losing side usually pays most of the firm's costs, and you may pay any shortfall and often a success fee, capped at 100% of the firm's base costs.
A damages-based agreement, or DBA, takes a share of your compensation instead. The losing side cannot be ordered to pay a CFA success fee (section 58A(6)), so it comes out of what you recover. What a conditional fee agreement means before you sign one explains both deals, and what percentage no win no fee solicitors take works through what you keep.
Who pays the other side's costs if you lose a no win, no fee case?
Many no win, no fee cases come with after-the-event (ATE) insurance, though it isn't compulsory. If your claim fails, it covers the risk of paying the other side's legal costs, and sometimes your own disbursements, such as expert and court fees.
Premiums vary with the risk and the cover, so get the figure in pounds. The losing side generally cannot be ordered to pay your premium (section 58C of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990), so if you win it usually comes out of your compensation.
Your lawyer will usually arrange the policy, but read its terms yourself, especially any duty to accept reasonable settlement offers.
What are disbursements in a no win, no fee claim?
The "no fee" only covers your lawyer's charges. Your case will also run up other expenses, known as disbursements, such as court fees, barristers' fees and reports from a doctor or surveyor. Your ATE policy may cover them, but some agreements make you pay them whether you win or lose.
Some firms also offer a loan to cover these costs. The lender may be linked to the firm or pay it a commission, giving it an interest in the loan that may not match yours. Interest can run until the case ends, so ask the total cost.
What to look for in a good no win, no fee deal
Look for a firm that offers:
- Clear terms if you lose or win. You should pay nothing if you lose, and know exactly what comes out of your compensation if you win.
- No hidden charges. Any insurance premium, loan or interest is set out in pounds in the agreement.
- An honest case check. Your chances are assessed properly before anyone encourages you to claim.
- Insurance clarity. You know who arranges the policy, who pays the premium, and what happens if cover is disputed.
Can I be ordered to pay the other side's costs in a housing claim?
Some housing claims carry less costs risk. In England, the First-tier Tribunal can only order costs in a rent repayment order case in limited situations, such as where a party has acted unreasonably (rule 13). A small claim in the County Court is similarly limited (rule 27.14), but a claim asking for repairs leaves the small claims track once the repairs or your other damages are worth more than £1,000 (CPR 26.9).
A disrepair claim above the small-claims limit is different, because the loser can be ordered to pay the other side's costs. Ask the firm what your own claim could cost you if it fails.
What are the risks of no win, no fee?
Most of the risks come from one fact. The firm earns nothing on a lost case.
Will a paralegal handle my no win, no fee case?
Many no win, no fee firms run a high volume of cases, so the winners pay for the ones they lose. That can mean your case is handled mostly by paralegals, with slow updates.
Ask who will run your case day to day, and how often you'll hear from them.
Can my solicitor pressure me to settle early?
A quick settlement pays the firm sooner than a long fight for a bigger award, so you may be advised to accept an early offer. Some early offers are fair. Ask the firm to explain in writing why it recommends the offer. Check what your agreement and ATE policy say about refusing an offer the firm recommends.
What is claim farming?
A claims farmer is a middleman who finds people with possible claims, often by cold call or a flyer about damp, and passes them on to a law firm.
Be wary of an unsolicited approach, and never let anyone make a claim in your name that overstates what happened.
What happens when a no win, no fee claim goes wrong?
Most of these problems only surface months after you sign.
What happens if my solicitor drops my case?
Firms sometimes withdraw when a case gets harder or weaker than expected. Depending on the termination clause, some clients only then discover they owe disbursements, or even the firm's charges for work already done.
Read the termination clause before you sign, so you know what you would owe either way.
Can I cancel a no win, no fee agreement?
You can end the agreement yourself. If you signed it at home, online or over the phone, you usually have 14 days to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. If the firm never told you about that right, the window stretches to 12 months and 14 days (regulation 31).
Cancelling inside the normal 14 days is not always free. If you asked the firm to start work straight away (in writing, if you signed away from its office), and it had told you about your right to cancel and what you would owe, it can charge a proportionate amount for what it has done (regulation 36). If it never told you about your right to cancel, you owe nothing for the work done before you cancelled.
After the window closes, the agreement's termination clause decides what you owe.
What if after-the-event insurance won't pay out?
Each ATE policy sets its own bar for the chances of winning. An insurer can still dispute cover later, for example if it thinks the case never met that bar or you didn't cooperate.
If the insurer refuses to pay, complain to the insurer first. If that does not resolve it, you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. A complaint about how your solicitor handled the case goes to the firm first. If you are unhappy with its final response, or it has not resolved things within eight weeks, you can go to the Legal Ombudsman. Each ombudsman has deadlines, usually six months from the final response, so don't wait.
Will the no win, no fee rules change?
The Civil Justice Council recommended in June 2025 that the separate CFA and DBA rules be replaced by a single set of rules. The government's response on 17 December 2025 said it would legislate on two recommendations about third-party litigation funding and look at the rest only after that. No bill has been introduced, so the current rules still apply.
Not sure what a no win, no fee offer would cost you? Remedy can read the agreement with you and set out the costs, insurance and exit terms in plain English before you sign.
