What percentage do no win no fee solicitors take?

A No Win No Fee or CFA is not a percentage of the damages that is known as a Damages Based Agreement or DBA. A No Win No Fee provides that if client wins then they are liable to pay the solicitors time cost plus a success fee of up to 100% no matter what the damages. In many cases this eats into damages because the success fee is never recoverable from the opponent and only about 75% of the normal costs are usually recoverable. By way of example, if under a CFA with a 50% success fee you are successful then you would be liable to your solicitor for 150% of their costs on a time basis. If those costs were £40,000 then you would have to pay your solicitor £60,000 if you win and nothing if you lose. The court would likely award you about 75% of your costs before the success fee (75% of £40,000=£30,000) and so you would have unrecoverable costs of £30,000 – the difference between what you owe your solicitor if you win (£60,000) and the amount your opponent is ordered to pay for your costs (£30,000). If your claim is not at least £100,000 it may be that the unrecoverable costs of a No Win No Fee agreement are too high. In each case you and your solicitor should work through the best and worst case scenarios to see if a CFA is right for your case. Where damages are small then Helix Law will consider a CFA with no success fee so that the litigation is commercially viable.