The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 1995, which came into force on 5 July, 1995, permitted personal injury lawyers to enter into a so-called ‘no win, no fee’ arrangement with their clients. Under the Order, the maximum success fee chargeable to the client was 100% of the basic fee. There was no provision to recover the success fee (or any insurance premium) from the other side, which meant that the client paid the success fee out of any damages awarded. In addition, the lawyers’ success fee was capped at 25% of the damages recovered.
Lawyers now had to grapple with identifying the percentage success fee to be charged by reference to the strength of the claim. The techniques employed for this were not uniform. Some lawyers used the socalled ‘ready reckoner’ developed by specialist associations such as the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and Personal Injury Bar Association.
