Conditional Fee Agreements (no-win, no-fee) – under a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement, a solicitor will only be paid a legal fee if they win the case, and the payment will be made by the losing party or their insurance company. If the case is lost, the solicitor cannot claim fees from the losing party/their insurance company or from their client. However, the client could end up having to pay for the other party’s costs.

In November 2010, the government announced that there would be changes to the system of civil aid In England and Wales. This includes cutting funding for clinical negligence cases as well as others. The proposals aim to cut the legal aid bill by £350m a year by 2015.