Costs
Take Immediate Action With Our Expert Commercial Litigation Team
Legal costs are a fact of life.
This is especially true if you’re a landlord or run a business.
At some point, you’re guaranteed to have a dispute that can’t be settled without at least the threat of taking the matter to court.
Even if you never set foot in a courtroom, legal costs and fees can add up quickly.
Failing to account for the costs of litigating a commercial or landlord/tenant dispute can strand you or your company in a worse position than if you’d let the matter drop.
Another unfortunate fact of life?
The commercial litigation process can often feel like it favours the party with the deeper pockets. We seek to redress this balance.
No matter how strong your position is, there’s always an element of risk in going to court.
If you lose — and sometimes even if you don’t* — you’ll likely have to pay for some — or all — of your opponent’s legal fees and costs.
On top of your own costs, of course.
Where we’re instructed, we seek to protect your position at the very outset.
No Win No Fee Eligibility Calculator
This is a non binding indication whether Helix Law Ltd might be able to offer you a "No Win, No Fee" agreement (also known as a Conditional Fee Agreement, or CFA). There is no cost of obligation for using this service and each case is assessed on its merits.
Area of work
We only enter into CFA funding agreements in relation to some commercial, property and construction disputes. We therefore need to understand what type of dispute you have so that we can assess whether a CFA might be appropriate.
Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?
This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.
Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?
This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.
Is the value in dispute more than £10,000?
This is important because typically it is only possible to recover legal costs, including costs funded on a ‘No Win, No Fee’ (or ‘Conditional Fee Agreement’), where the amount in dispute is over £10,000. If you have a dispute where your losses and damages are less than £10,000 it is unlikely we can offer you a CFA.
The dispute is:
Generally speaking tenants will not own assets. That means you might ‘win’ but not recover damages and costs- even if the court orders the tenant to pay. Whereas if your dispute is with a property owner we can usually recover your costs and damages from their share of the property.
Is your claim about an unpaid application for payment and/or retention greater than £20,000?
This is important as it helps us assess the likely cost; benefit for you, and our ability to offer you CFA funding.
Do you have a contract in writing or registered shares in your name?
The more evidence you have in support of your allegations, the better your prospects of success. The higher your prospects of success, the more likely we can offer you a CFA funding arrangement.
Is the issue arising recently or within the last 6 years at most?
All disputes are subject to limitation periods- this is the period of time in which a claim must be issued. Most limitation periods in our work are 6 years. There can be exceptions and upto 12 years is possible, but this is a factor that can increase risk to you and to us and might lead to us declining to offer a CFA. With the passage of time memories can/will also fade, and evidence can be lost or destroyed. Acting promptly can therefore be important.
Does the opponent own property in England and Wales?
We want to ensure we can force your opponent to pay if they refuse to pay. If your opponent has assets, usually property, we can have greater confidence of recovering money, property, or assets (or all the above), for you. Otherwise there can be risk that you have a good claim with good prospects of success, but if your oppoennt doesn’t own anything, you might not recover damages or losses.
Thank you for filling out the form
Based on the form, we think there is a good prospect we will be prepared to offer you a No Win No Fee agreement (CFA). Please confirm your contact details and a member of our team will contact you usually within 1 hour during usual business hours.
Levelling the Playing Field for Legal Costs
It’s all too common practice in commercial litigation for the party with greater cash flow and resources to wait out the little guy regardless of a claim’s merit.
At Helix Law, we level the playing field by helping ordinary businesses litigate as if they had deep pockets — even when they don’t.
By sharing the cost risks of litigation, we can help you punch above your weight — and potentially cut your exposure in half.
In some circumstances, we can secure insurance that caps your costs.
Fee structures we routinely offer clients include:
- No Win No Fee
- Fixed Price Service
- Monthly Retainer
- Fixed Fee Landlord Services and Residential Possession
- Construction Adjudication (Smash and Grab)
After carefully considering your budget, the merits of your claim, and your current litigation requirements, we’ll help you determine the best payment option, given the circumstances.
The Danger of Representing Yourself In Court
You may be tempted to represent yourself in a dispute in an attempt to minimise legal costs.
Representing yourself in a commercial dispute is rarely a good idea — and can be a false economy at best.
By forgoing expert legal advice, you’re less likely to achieve a favourable outcome by forgoing expert legal advice.
It also sends a signal to your opponent that you don’t take the matter seriously.
If you win a commercial litigation case, your opponent will be liable for your legal costs.
By representing yourself, you disincentivise your opponent to settle out of court and — perhaps inadvertently — lower their risk.
Why?
There is no penalty to your opponent for continuing to litigate. They will incur legal fees, but if they lose, they won’t be ordered to pay your costs because you haven’t incurred any.
Costs can provide a powerful incentive towards forcing a settlement — especially where your opponent is concerned about losing and being ordered to pay your costs.
Potential liability for the other party’s legal costs is a significant factor in bringing litigants to a commercial settlement — a crucial negotiating element litigants in person often overlook.
In claims of £50,000 or less, both parties tend to focus on costs increasingly as the case goes on. Legal costs often escalate quickly and surpass the value of the claim itself.
At Helix Law, we carefully evaluate costs issues upfront to tailor a fee agreement that:
- Minimises risk to our client
- Maximises risk for the opponent
- Allows our clients to make a sound commercial judgment on whether to litigate based on realistic, fully costed scenarios
With a favourable fee structure in place, you can better focus on the dispute and feel confident in negotiating a good settlement or winning at trial.
At Helix, we’re entirely transparent about our fees, any additional costs risks, and the particulars of our work.
If your opponent knows you are strong on costs and have expert legal help, they’re far more likely to take you seriously and highly incentivised to settle.
You become a much more formidable opponent when the other party knows you can afford to fight to the end — and that they’ll be liable for most of your costs if they lose.
If the claimant or defendant believes you’ll run out of money before the matter concludes, they may string out the dispute — regardless of the merits of the case.
Contact the expert legal team at Helix to discuss your commercial dispute now. We can have an initial discussion at no cost and aim to respond to all queries within one hour.
*Positioning is incredibly important in litigation. Acting reasonably and proportionately — and being seen to be acting reasonably and proportionately — are paramount. For example, if you unreasonably refuse to mediate, there is now case law suggesting you might be at risk of ‘winning’ but still being ordered to pay your opponent’s costs as well as your own. We’re aware of this possibility and will protect you from this type of outcome where we’re instructed.
People often try to minimise their cost risk by representing themselves.
This is a false economy because they are still liable for the other side’s costs if they lose, would get most of their legal costs back if they win and the opponent knows they are not at risk of paying the litigant’s solicitors’ costs if they lose. The risk of having to pay the other party’s costs is a very significant factor in bringing litigants to a commercial settlement. This is often overlooked by litigants in person.
For these reasons it is hard to overestimate the importance of understanding, controlling and reducing cost risk. When you embark on a case there is just the case to worry about. After a few weeks or months the costs start to increase and can become larger than the sum in issue. Sometimes you can win a case but, for a number of complex reasons, lose on the costs. In claims of less than about £50,000 that do not settle early the parties tend to focus more and more on costs as the case goes on. At Helix we look at the costs issues upfront, tailor a fee agreement that minimises risk to our client, maximises risk for the opponent and allows our clients to make a sound commercial judgment on whether to litigate based on realistic, fully costed, scenarios.
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