Prior to the turn of the decade people who were injured in accidents had only limited help when it came to trying to claim compensation for their losses and injuries that had occurred that were not their fault.
The no win no fee term was first heard around 1998, when the government decided that they would overhaul the current system of legal aid, to give people more freedom of choice, as well as faster access to gaining the justice they deserved. This also meant that they would not need to fork out hundreds, if not thousands of pounds for a solicitor to help them with their case.
Conditional fee agreements, (the legal term for no win no fee) started to really become a big deal from 2000 onwards. It opened up the ability to claim for an accident that wasn’t the victim’s fault, even if before they may not have been able to afford to do so. This basically made the legal system for personal injuries completely classless, meaning ordinary, hard-working families could not be compensated if injured at work, or in a car accident for example.
During the last decade a large number of ‘claims firms’ appeared who were capitalising on the ever-growing industry, where they were finding people who were injured and ‘selling’ their cases to lawyers for massively inflated fees.
The claims management industry has come under much pressure as of late for taking advantage of people in a terrible situation for financial gain, and reviews such as the recent Jackson report is looking into whether this practice should continue.
There is no doubt however that no win no fee claims are a great things for those genuinely injured in accidents that weren’t their fault – particularly they are unable to work and earn money as a result and therefore not pay their mortgage or even put food on the table for their family in the most extreme of cases. The money they receive here will ensure that they never go short.
Proper firms of lawyers who genuinely care about getting their clients the justice they are entitled to should therefore be allowed to thrive for years to come.
