Legal Costs Explained

What Types of Costs Apply in UK Litigation?

Direct Answer: Legal costs in UK civil litigation include solicitors' fees, barristers' fees, court fees and disbursements. The general rule is that the loser pays the winner's reasonable costs, but personal injury claimants are protected from paying the defendant's costs by Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (QOCS).

Solicitor's Costs (Profit Costs)

These are the professional fees charged by your solicitor for the legal work done on your case. In a CFA arrangement, these costs are conditional on success. If you lose, no solicitor fees are payable. If you win, the defendant (or their insurer) typically pays your solicitor's base costs as part of the inter partes costs order.

Disbursements

Disbursements are expenses paid to third parties during the case. They are separate from the solicitor's professional fees. Common disbursements include:

• Medical expert reports: £500–£5,000+ depending on specialism
• Court issue fees: £308–£10,000 (depending on claim value)
• Counsel's fees: Barrister fees for advice, hearings, or trial
• Police report fees: Typically £70–£150
• Medical records access: £50–£500
• Travel and accommodation: For court attendance or expert appointments
• Engineering reports: Accident reconstruction, vehicle damage reports

Success Fee

The success fee is the solicitor's risk premium — a percentage uplift on their base costs payable only if the case succeeds. It can be up to 100% of base costs, but for personal injury claims it is capped at 25% of general damages and past losses. The success fee is deducted from your damages, not paid by the defendant (post-LASPO).

How Costs Are Recovered

Inter Partes Costs

When you win your case, the defendant is ordered to pay your legal costs. These are called inter partes costs and are assessed on the "standard basis" — meaning costs must be proportionate to the matters in issue and reasonably incurred. The inter partes costs typically cover most of your solicitor's base costs and disbursements but rarely cover 100%.

Fixed Costs (Part 45 CPR)

The fixed costs regime applies to most personal injury claims that go through the claims portal (RTA claims, EL/PL claims up to £25,000). Instead of detailed assessment, the recoverable costs are set at predetermined levels based on the claim value and stage at which it settles.

From October 2023, the fixed costs regime was extended to cover most fast-track personal injury claims (up to £100,000 in value) under the "intermediate track" introduced by the Civil Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2023.

Deductions from Your Damages

In a typical no win no fee personal injury claim, the following deductions may be made from your compensation:

Your solicitor is required to provide you with a clear costs breakdown and explain all deductions before you agree to any settlement. Under the SRA Code of Conduct 2019, solicitors must ensure clients receive the best possible information about costs and funding.

Worked Example: What Would You Actually Receive?

Direct Answer: The success fee cap applies to general damages and past financial loss net of any recoverable benefits repaid to the Compensation Recovery Unit — not to your total damages. That order of operations changes what 25% actually means in pounds.

Using an illustrative £10,000 settlement made up of £6,000 general damages (pain, suffering and loss of amenity), £1,500 past financial loss and £2,500 future financial loss, where £500 of state benefits must be repaid to the CRU:

Illustration only, using round numbers to show the mechanism required by the Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 and the CRU scheme — it is not a prediction of any case's value. Your own CRU repayment, ATE premium and unrecovered disbursements will differ, and your solicitor must give you an actual costs breakdown before you agree to any settlement.

Detailed Assessment

If the parties cannot agree on the amount of inter partes costs, the receiving party can apply for a detailed assessment hearing before a costs judge. The judge reviews each item of costs, considers the paying party's Points of Dispute, and determines what is reasonable, proportionate, and necessarily incurred. Detailed assessment is governed by CPR Part 47.