We assist commercial clients on a no win no fee, or so-called contingency fee basis, in undefended commercial recoveries and debt collection. Our no win no fee arrangement is concluded strictly in accordance with the Contingency Fees Act, no 66 of 1997.
The idea behind a no win no fee arrangement is that you do not pay legal fees unless and until you win, and then only do we receive a percentage of your recovery as our fee. If you make no recovery, you pay no legal fees, hence the expression no win no fee.
How no win no fee works in practice is that we consider each matter you hand over to us and advise you whether we are prepared to represent you on a no win no fee basis.
We assess your prospects of recovery and if we think there is a reasonable prospect that you may succeed, we enter into a contingency fee agreement with you, in which it is agreed that:
- we will not be entitled to any fees for legal services rendered in respect of such proceedings, unless you are successful in the proceedings;
- due to the risk we incur, we will be entitled to fees higher than our normal fees for the legal services we will render, if you are successful in the proceedings;
- any legal fees which are higher than our normal fees (the “success fee”), may never exceed our normal fees by more than 100 per cent. In addition, the total of any success fee payable to us, may never exceed 25% of the total amount awarded to you. So in a nutshell, our fees will be either our normal fees plus 100%, alternatively 25% of the amount recovered, whichever is the least.
You will, however, be liable for all disbursements that we incur during the course of a matter, which will include, but not be limited to:
- sheriff’s fees;
- correspondent attorneys’ fees (where we have to sue outside the Johannesburg or Randburg jurisdictions);
- photocopying charges, facsimile charges, mileage for travelling, etc.;
- advocate’s fees (principally when we are preparing for trial);
- file archiving.