Before we begin let me clarify what a solicitor and a barrister are. A solicitor is a person that handles general types of legal situations in matters such as traffic tickets and other larger types of cases. A barrister on the other hand is a specialized solicitor in other words. Barristers have the ability to appear inside of superior courts by way of what’s called “Rights of Audience” which solicitors do not have. Depending on your legal issues that you need a solicitor to handle, you may need to retain a barrister instead especially if your case is being referred to a Superior Court. Usually a solicitor will do the referral in the background if he / she believes your case needs to be elevated to a barrister.
Now that I’ve explained the difference between barristers and solicitors we can proceed to describe situations where you would want to have a no win no fee solicitor or a no win no fee barrister.
Legal professionals are not guaranteed to win in court always, and as you may already know legal expenses can be very expensive and lucrative for legal professionals at times, even if they lose the case. No win no fee basically means if the solicitor or other legal professional does not win your case you don’t owe them any money. This type of process is also referred to as a contingency basis, especially within the United States. Many different solicitors offer no win no fee / contingency services to their clients to better offer peace of mind.
You may have previously seen a lot of these different legal professionals on television pitching their no win no fee services. Usually these solicitors may say things such as “you don’t pay if we don’t win”, “no cost if we lose”, etc.
This means the exact thing as no win no fee. While many legal professionals such as solicitors and barristers may not advertise their contingency services, most still do behind-the-scenes and you may need to contact them to find out.
In most cases retaining a contingency-based legal professional will be the best option as much of your risk will be avoided. You still need to however, ensure that professional solicitor that you pick for your case is competent. An incompetent solicitor or barrister can be just as much of a nightmare as a huge bill for a lost case.
Where You Can Find a No Win No Fee Solicitor
If this term sounds very vague to you, you may live within the United States and other surrounding areas where these types of legal professionals are referred to as attorneys and lawyers. The term solicitors and barristers are usually used within the United Kingdom, Australia and other surrounding areas. There are differences between these different legal systems and professionals.
