All Solicitors are required under Section 150 of the Legal Services Regulation Act, 2015 to provide their clients with a notice written in clear language.
This Notice must set out what legal costs will be incurred in relation to the matter.
The costs notice must be issued after a legal practitioner has received instructions, but before he or she has started providing the advice or legal service.
Where it is not ‘reasonably practicable’ for a legal practitioner to disclose legal costs after initial instructions from a client, the practitioner must set out the basis on which the legal costs are to be calculated e.g. hourly rates.
As soon as it become practicable to do so, the legal practitioner shall provide the client a notice setting out what legal costs will be incurred.
“No win, No Fee” arrangements are an agreement between a solicitor and their client that the client shall not receive a bill from their solicitor for a professional legal fee unless that client’s personal injury claim is successful.
Solicitors are prohibited from advertising their services on a “no win, no fee” basis. [Regulation 9(a) of the Solicitors (Advertising regulations)].
During your first consultation our solicitors will discuss with you how legal fees and outlay shall operate in relation to your claim and the matter of “no win, no fee” shall be discussed.
As noted above, solicitors are obliged to provide their clients with an estimate of their legal fees at the outset of any claim. Your Sherlock & Co. solicitor will provide you with this estimate.
Please remember that in contentious legal matters, such as personal injury claims, solicitors may not calculate their fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.
Irish solicitors commonly use the principle of “no win, no fee”. If you fail with your Personal Injury claim for example there would be no fee charged for the solicitor’s services. But if the dispute is resolved by means of an out-of-court settlement or in front of a judge, you may have to pay legal costs to the Solicitor you have engaged to represent you.
In the event of an accident, on the job, or elsewhere, you may want to sue the responsible party to get compensation for a Personal Injury to cover your medical costs.
A no-win-no-fee arrangement is used to grant you the lawful right to bring a lawsuit no matter what the financial or legal circumstances. The ‘no win, no fee’ policy and ‘no-fees if we don’t win’ in many cases form part of the settlement and are very well known when it comes to legal services.
The Solicitors costs can vary based on the severity of the situation and would be calculated after the specifics of a case have been looked at.
Solicitors can enter into no win no fee agreements with clients however, they are specifically not allowed to promote no win no fee arrangements in advertisements.
All solicitors in Ireland are regulated by the Law Society of Ireland. One of the regulations describes what a solicitor can do or say about the services they offer.
Solicitors in Ireland are not allowed to promote no win no fee services and therefore if you see an advertisement for no-win-no-fee it is advisable to be cautious as this may be a firm operating outside of Ireland.
Such an entity operating outside of Ireland maybe involved in ‘claims harvesting‘ activity and would potentially be entirely unregulated. These pages can be misleading and manipulative. Many of these pages may try to help you find a solicitor if you have problems. It has been discovered in some cases that the solicitor they have referred you to may have accepted the lawsuit referral and by doing so have violated Law Society of Ireland rules.
It is perfectly legal to engage with a solicitor on a no win no fee basis and it is found to be a common practice of Irish solicitors.
The nature of a no-win, no-fee agreements can differ for each solicitor, so it is important that you consult with your solicitor on all facets of the case before proceeding.
Depending on what agreement you have in place with a Solicitor you may be asked to pay for some case costs regardless of the outcome of your lawsuit (court stamp duty, medical costs, for example).
You want to ensure that the Solicitor who represents you on your personal injury case is well-versed and competent in the use of the Law Society of Ireland rules
Are the Law Society’s regulations adhered to by the solicitor? You should have no concerns about how they would handle the case if so. You can find out how long a company has been around, their professionalism, and their current state of development by looking at their website.
Be sure to read their testimonials to learn more about what it is like to work with them.
Finally, talk to the Solicitors practice and find out who will be working on the case, and set up a meeting to discuss your case.