Solicitor fees, section 149 and "no win no fee" in Ireland

People search for the phrase in this guide's title because it is what solicitors in other countries say. In Ireland a solicitor cannot say it, cannot charge a percentage of the damages, and must put the fee in writing before any work starts. This guide explains the three rules, what the arrangement people are looking for actually is, and why this site does not carry a form.

Section 149: no percentage fees

Section 149 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 provides that a legal practitioner shall not charge fees or costs in respect of a personal injuries action calculated as a percentage or proportion of any damages recovered. It also requires that every advertisement by a solicitor relating to personal injuries refer to that prohibition, which is why solicitors' websites carry a sentence about it.

The fee therefore has to be set by some other method: a fixed sum for stages of the work, an hourly rate, or a scale tied to the court. Whatever the method, the amount is not linked to the size of the award. A solicitor who did well for a client on a large claim is paid for the work, not for the result.

The 2020 Regulations: what a solicitor cannot say

The Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 (Advertising) Regulations 2020, S.I. No. 644/2020, set out what an advertisement by a legal practitioner about personal injuries may not contain. In plain terms, a solicitor's advertisement may not:

• solicit or encourage a person to make a personal injury claim;
• state or imply that a fee is payable only if the claim succeeds;
• offer a first consultation free of charge;
• quote success rates or past results;
• use dramatic or emotive words or pictures, or refer to calamitous events;
• refer to damages other than by reference to the Personal Injuries Guidelines;
• omit the reference to section 149.

The Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA, see the glossary) enforces the Regulations and publishes guidance on them. The list explains a great deal about why Irish solicitors' pages look as they do, and why this site, which holds itself to the same standard, says "the Guidelines' bracket for an injury described like this" and never a figure for anyone's claim.

What the arrangement actually is

A solicitor may lawfully agree with a client that if the claim does not succeed the solicitor will not charge their own professional fee. The Regulations ban advertising it; they do not ban the agreement. When it is offered, three things should be clear from the section 150 notice:

The third row is the one that matters. A court can order a claimant to pay the defendant's costs where the claim fails, where a lodgment or a section 17 tender is not beaten, or under section 51A of the 2003 Act where a court awards no more than a Board assessment the respondent had accepted. The guide on what a case costs and who pays works through each, and the accept-or-reject explainer shows the section 51A exposure beside the Board's figure.

And because of section 149, where the claim does succeed the fee still cannot be a share of the award. It is the agreed fee, some of which may be recovered from the other side if costs follow the event, with the gap paid by the client.

Section 150: the notice of costs

Section 150 of the 2015 Act requires a solicitor, as soon as practicable after taking instructions, to give the client a notice in writing setting out:

• the costs, or where that is not practicable the basis on which they will be calculated;
• an outline of the work to be done;
• the outlays likely to be incurred;
• in litigation, the likelihood of the client having to pay the other side's costs, and of recovering the client's own costs from the other side, together with the circumstances in which either may happen;
• that the client may be required to pay costs even where the claim succeeds, where the amount recovered from the other side does not cover them.

The notice must be updated when circumstances change, and no fee is enforceable until the client has had one. It is the document to read before signing anything. If the terms are unclear, the client may ask for them to be explained and may decline to instruct.

Where a solicitor fits

The Board route is designed to be used without a solicitor, and the Board says so on its own pages. For most claims that go through the Board and are accepted, the costs are the application fee and the doctor's report, both recoverable in the award. The guide on claiming without a solicitor sets out when the Board's FAQ answers the question and when it does not.

The points where a solicitor is plainly the right step are the ones the other guides name: a rejected assessment, a figure in High Court territory, a claim for a child, a fatal claim, and medical negligence, which the Board does not handle at all. The Law Society's find a solicitor directory lists every practising solicitor in the State by location and practice area. Civil legal aid does not generally cover personal injury actions; the Legal Aid Board's page lists what it covers.

How this site's form keeps to those rules

Three things in Irish law bear on a website that takes your details and passes them to a solicitor.

The first is section 62 of the Solicitors Act 1954, under which a solicitor may not reward an unqualified person for business introduced. The second is the Law Society's stated position that a solicitor who takes referrals from a claims-harvesting website may be guilty of misconduct. The third is the 2020 Regulations, which prohibit soliciting or encouraging a claim: a site that invited one on a solicitor's behalf would be doing what the solicitor may not do directly.

So the form on this site is built around those three. It asks what the enquiry is about and how to reach you, and never what happened to you, who was responsible or what you think the injury is worth. It does not say a claim should be made, and "just researching" is a fine answer. The partner firm pays a fixed sponsorship that does not change with the number of enquiries, so no payment follows an introduction. And the words the 2020 Regulations forbid do not appear on it. The disclosure page names the firm and sets out the arrangement in full.

Where this leaves you

A solicitor's fee in a personal injury claim cannot be a percentage of the award, cannot be advertised as payable only on success, and must be set out in writing under section 150 before the work begins. An agreement not to charge the professional fee if a claim fails is lawful but rarely covers outlays and never covers the other side's costs. The accept-or-reject explainer shows what that exposure looks like against the Board's figure, which is the number a fee discussion usually starts from.