C3Part IILegal Services
Miscellaneous
F158 Conditional fee agreements.
1
A conditional fee agreement which satisfies all of the conditions applicable to it by virtue of this section shall not be unenforceable by reason only of its being a conditional fee agreement; but (subject to subsection (5)) any other conditional fee agreement shall be unenforceable.
2
For the purposes of this section and section 58A—
a
a conditional fee agreement is an agreement with a person providing advocacy or litigation services which provides for his fees and expenses, or any part of them, to be payable only in specified circumstances; and
b
a conditional fee agreement provides for a success fee if it provides for the amount of any fees to which it applies to be increased, in specified circumstances, above the amount which would be payable if it were not payable only in specified circumstances.
3
The following conditions are applicable to every conditional fee agreement—
a
it must be in writing;
b
it must not relate to proceedings which cannot be the subject of an enforceable conditional fee agreement; and
C24
The following further conditions are applicable to a conditional fee agreement which provides for a success fee—
a
it must relate to proceedings of a description specified by order made by the F2Secretary of State;
b
it must state the percentage by which the amount of the fees which would be payable if it were not a conditional fee agreement is to be increased; and
c
that percentage must not exceed the percentage specified in relation to the description of proceedings to which the agreement relates by order made by the F2Secretary of State.
5
If a conditional fee agreement is an agreement to which section 57 of the M1Solicitors Act 1974 (non-contentious business agreements between solicitor and client) applies, subsection (1) shall not make it unenforceable.
Pt. 2: transfer of functions (19.8.2003) by The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs Order 2003 (S.I. 2003/1887), arts. 4, 5, Sch. 1 (with arts. 6, 8)