The Law Society's model conditional fee agreement was rendered obsolete by the conditional fee agreement regulations which came into force on 1 April.

(See [2000] Gazette, 23 March, 47).

It should be emphasised that any old-style model agreement entered into after that date will not be enforceable (although those entered into prior to 1 April remain valid).

A new form of agreement, incorporating the matters set out under the regulations, is therefore necessary.It should be made clear that this agreement is no more than a running repair to the existing model CFA in response to the recent regulations.

No changes have been included in relation to proposed alterations to the CPR, which have yet to be settled.

Nor has any attempt been made at this stage to set out the changes in the clear English incorporated into the Society's previous model agreement.

A new model agreement, in clear English, will be prepared when the rules are settled.

In the meantime the current working draft is set out here to assist practitioners who need to conclude new agreements at this stage.Practitioners should also be extremely careful with regard to the requirements of reg.

4(2) (e), under which the solicitor is to confirm to the client whether a contract of insurance is appropriate or whether they recommend such a contract.

It is not intended that solicitors should offer advice on the merits of various insurance products, merely that they should consider whether a particular contract is appropriate to the client's needs.

Solicitors should not be acting as brokers and it should be made clear to clients that they are not.For cases conducted through Accident Line Protect, it is important to use the Society's working draft model agreement after 1 April 2000.

Accident Line Protect insurers will interpret any reference to the Conditional Fee Agreements Regulations 1995 in the policy wording or User Manual as The Conditional Fee Agreements Regulations 2000.

The existing terms of Accident Line Protect insurance are unaltered until the Court Rules are finalised.CONDITIONAL FEE AGREEMENT -- FOR USE IN PERSONAL INJURY CASES (NON-CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE)This agreement is a binding legal contract between you and your solicitor/s.

Before you sign, please read everything carefully.

Please also read 'Conditional Fees Explained', a Law Society leaflet we have given you.An explanation of words like 'our disbursements', 'basic charges', 'win' and 'lose' is in condition 3 of the Law Society Conditions which you should also read carefully.Agreement date [ ].I/We, the solicitor/s [ ] You, the client [ ].That is covered by this agreement-- Your claim against [ ] for damages for personal injury suffered on [ ].-- Any appeal by your opponent.-- Any appeal you make against an interim order during the proceedings.-- Any proceedings you take to enforce a judgment, order or agreement.What is not covered by this agreementAny counterclaim against you.Any appeal you make against the final judgement order.Paying usW hatever happens you have to pay our disbursements.

In addition:If you win your claim, you pay our basic charges and a success fee.

The amount of the success fee is not limited by reference to the damages.

You may be able to recover our disbursements, basic charges, success fee and insurance premium from your opponent.

Please see conditions 4 and 6.If you receive interim damages, we may require you to pay our disbursements and a reasonable amount for our future disbursements.If you receive provisional damages, we will be entitled to payment of your basic charges and success fee at that point.

However, we may agree to delay payment of all or part of the success fee.If you lose, you pay your opponent's charges and disbursements.

Please see conditions 3(k) and 5.If you win, but on the way lose an interim hearing, you may be required to pay your opponent's charges of that hearing.

Please see conditions 3(i) and 5.If, on the way, you win an interim hearing, we will be entitled to payment of your basic costs related to that application in any event together with a success fee on those costs if you win overall.If you end this agreement before you win or lose, you pay our basic charges.

If you go on to win, you pay a success fee.

Please see condition 7(b).If we end this agreement before you win or lose, please see condition 7(c).Basic chargesThese are for work done from now until this agreement ends and are calculated for each hour engaged on your matter (from now until the review date on [ ]).

Routine letters and telephone calls will be charged as units of one tenth of an hour.

Other letters and telephone calls will be charged on a time basis.

The hourly rates are:-- Solicitors with over four years' experience after qualification £[ ]-- Other solicitors and legal executives and other staff of equivalent experience £[ ]-- Trainee solicitors and other staff of equivalent experience £[ ][We will review the hourly rate on the review date and on each anniversary of the review date.

We will not increase the rate by more than the rise in the Retail Prices Index and will notify you of the increased rate in writing.]Success feeThis is [ ]% of the basic charges.

Of this percentage increase [ ]% relates to the cost of the postponement of payment of our basic charges and disbursements.

The reasons for setting the success fee at this level are set out in the Schedule to this agreement.Value added tax (VAT)We add VAT, at the rate (now [ ]%) that applies when the work is done, to the total of the basic charges and success fee.Law Society conditionsThe attached Law Society conditions are part of this agreement.

Any amendments or additions to them will apply to you.

You should read them carefully.Other pointsImmediately before you signed this agreement, we explained to you orally the effect of this agreement and in particular the following:(a) the circumstances in which you may be liable to pay our disbursements and charges;(b) the circumstances in which you may seek assessment of fees and expenses and the procedure for so doing;(c) whether we consider that your risk of incurring liability for costs in these proceedings is insured under an existing contract of insurance;(d) other methods of financing those costs.(e) (i) You might be able to cover such costs by [ ].(ii) In all the circumstances, we presently believe, on the information currently available to us, that a contract of insurance with [ ] is appropriate to cover your opponents charges and disbursements in the event that y ou lose.(iii) We confirm that we do not have an interest in recommending this particular insurance agreement.SignaturesSigned for the solicitor/sSigned by the clientI confirm that the matters set out at sub-paragraphs (a) to (d) inclusive under 'Other Points' above were explained to me orally by my solicitor.Signed .

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(Client)This agreement complies with the Conditional Fee Agreements Regulations 2000 (S.I.2000 No.1692).Law Society conditions1.

Our responsibilitiesWe must:-- Always act in your best interests, subject to our duty to the court;-- Explain to you the risks and benefits of taking legal action;-- Give you our best advice about whether to accept any offer of settlement;-- Give you the best information possible about the likely costs of your claim for damages.2.

Your responsibilitiesYou must:-- Give us instructions that allow us to do our work properly;-- Not ask us to work in an improper or unreasonable way;-- Not deliberately mislead us;-- Co-operate with us;-- Go to any medical or expert examination or court hearing.3.

Explanation of words used(a) Advocacy: appearing for you at court hearings.(b) Basic charges: our charges for the legal work we do on your claim for damages.(c) Cap: the limit on the amount of your damages that can be taken as success fees.(d) Claim: a claim is your demand for damages for personal injury whether or not court proceedings are issued.(e) Counterclaim: a claim that your opponent makes against you in response to your claim.(f) Damages: money that you win whether by a court decision or settlement.(g) Our disbursements: payments we make on your behalf, such as:-- Court fees;-- Experts' fees;-- Accident report fees;-- Travelling expenses.(h) Interim damages: money that a court says your opponent must pay or your opponent agrees to pay while waiting for a settlement or the court's final decision.(i) Interim hearing: a court hearing which is not final.(j) Lien: our right to keep all papers, documents, money or other property held on your behalf until all money due to us is paid.

A lien may be applied after this agreement ends.(k) Lose: the court has dismissed your claim or you have stopped it on our advice.(l) Part 36 offers or payments: it may be that your opponent makes a Part 36 offer or payment which you reject and, on our advice, your claim for damages goes ahead to trial where you recover damages that are less than that offer or payment.

If so, we will not add our success fee to the basic charges for the work done after we received notice of the offer or payment.(m) Provisional damages: money that a court says your opponent must pay or your opponent agrees to pay, on the basis that you will be able to go back to court at a future date for further damages if you develop a serious disease, or your condition deteriorates, in a way which has been proven or admitted to be linked to your personal injury claim.(n) Success fee: the percentage of basic charges that we add to your bill if you win your claim for damages.(o) Win: your claim for damages is finally decided in your favour, whether by a court decision or an agreement to pay you damages.

'Finally' means that your opponent:-- is not allowed to appeal against the court decision; or-- has not appealed in time; or-- has lost any appeal.4.

If you win:-- You are then liable to pay all our basic charges and success fee (please see condition 3(n);-- Normally, you will be able to recover part or all of our basic charges, success fee and disbursements from you r opponent;-- If you and your opponent cannot agree the amount, the court will decide how much you can recover.

If the amount agreed or allowed by the court does not cover all our basic charges and disbursements, you pay the difference;-- If the court carries out an assessment of our charges, you agree that the reasons for setting the success fee at the amount stated may be disclosed to the court and any other person required by the court;-- If the court carries out an assessment and the court disallows any amount of the success fee the percentage on the ground that it is unreasonable in view of what we knew or should have known at the time, that amount ceases to be payable under this agreement unless the court is satisfied that it should continue to be payable;-- If we agree with your opponent that the success fee is to be paid at a lower percentage than is set out in this agreement, then the success fee percentage shall be reduced unless the court is satisfied that the full amount is payable;-- Where an offer is made by your opponent including payment of basic charges and the success fee payable by yourself under this agreement, then unless we consent, you agree not to tell us to accept an offer which includes payment of the success fee at any reduced rate from that set out in this agreement;-- If your opponent is on legal aid, we are unlikely to get any money from him or her.

(So if this happens, you have to pay.)You remain ultimately responsible for payment of our success fee.

You agree to pay into a designated account any cheque received by you or by us from your opponent and made payable to you.

Out of the money, you agree to let us take the balance of the basic charges; success fee; remaining disbursements; and VAT.

You take the rest.

We are allowed to keep any interest your opponent pays on the charges.Payment for advocacy is explained in condition 6.If your opponent does not pay any damages or charges owed to you, we have the right to take recovery action in your name to enforce a judgment, order or agreement.

The charges of this action become part of the basic charges.5.

If you lose, you do not have to pay any of the basic charges or success fee.

You do have to pay:-- us for our disbursements;-- your opponent's legal charges and disbursements;If you are insured against payment of these amounts by your insurance policy, we will make a claim on your behalf and receive any resulting payment in your name.

We will give you a statement of account for all money received and paid out.If your opponent pays the charges of any hearing, they belong to us.Payment for advocacy is dealt with in condition 6.6.

Payment for advocacyThe cost of advocacy and any other work by us, or by any solicitor agent on our behalf, forms part of our basic charges.Barristers who have a conditional fee agreement with us: if you win, their fees can be recovered by us from your opponent.

You must pay the barrister's success fee shown in the separate conditional fee agreement we make with the barrister.

We will discuss the barrister's success fee with you before we instruct him or her.

If you lose, you pay the barrister nothing.Barristers who do not have a conditional fee agreement with us:If you choose a barrister, then you will pay their fee if you lose your case.7.

What happens when this agreement ends before your claim for damages ends?(a) Paying us if you end this agreementYou can end the agreement at any time.

We then have the right to decide whether you must:-- pay the basic charges and our disbursements in cluding barristers' fees when we ask for them; or-- pay the basic charges, our disbursements including barristers' fees and success fees if you go on to win your claim for damages.(b) Paying us if we end this agreement(i) We can end this agreement if you do not keep to your responsibilities in condition 2.

We then have the right to decide whether you must:-- pay the basic charges and our disbursements including barristers' fees when we ask for them; or-- pay the basic charges, and our disbursements including barristers' fees and success fee if you go on to win your claim for damages.(ii) We can end this agreement if we believe you are unlikely to win but you disagree with us.

If this happens, you will only have to pay our disbursements including barristers' fees.(iii) We can end this agreement if you reject our opinion about making a settlement with your opponent.

You must then:-- pay the basic charges and our disbursements, including barristers' fees;-- pay the success fee if you go on to win your claim for damages (unless your damages or settlement are at least 20% more than the offer we advised you to accept).If you ask us to get a second opinion from a specialist solicitor outside our firm, we will do so.

You pay the cost of a second opinion.(iv) We can end this agreement if you do not pay your insurance premium when asked to do so.(c) DeathThis agreement automatically ends if you die before your claim for damages is concluded.

We will be entitled to recover our basic charges up to the date of your death from your estate.Should your personal representatives wish to continue your claim for damages, we may offer them a new conditional fee agreement, as long as they agree to pay the success fee on our basic charges from the beginning of the agreement with you.8.

What happens after this agreement endsAfter this agreement ends, we will apply to have our name removed from the record of any court proceedings in which we are acting unless you have legal aid and ask us to work for you.We have the right to preserve our lien unless another solicitor working for you undertakes to pay us what we are owed including a success fee if you win.Explanatory notes-- For Accident Line Protect cases, you need to insert the following clause on page 3 of the agreement beneath the paragraph headed 'Cap on Success Fee':Accident Line Protect insurance (ALP)Accident Line Protect is an insurance policy only made available to you by solicitors who have joined the Accident Line Protect scheme.You agree to pay a premium of £[ ] for Accident Line Protect Insurance when you sign this agreement.

We undertake to send this to the Broker on your behalf.

If you lose after proceedings have been issued, Accident Line Protect will cover our disbursements and your opponent's charges and disbursements.

It will not cover fees to your barristers or advocates.

The maximum cover is £100,000.If this agreement ends before your claim for damages ends, Accident Line Protect ends automatically.

If this agreement has ended because you have got legal aid, your Accident Line Protect cover remains in force as regards your opponent's charges and our disbursements incurred up to the date this agreement ends.'-- The model agreement has been drafted to include VAT in the cap.

If you wish to provide that VAT is not included in the cap, you will need to alter the wording in the following paragraphs:--- Page 3, paragraph 2 headed 'Cap on Success Fee' -- in the first line, delete the word 'including' and substitute the word 'excluding' ;-- Page 7, paragraph 3(n) headed 'Success fee' -- in the last sentence, delete the words ' we include VAT' and substitute the words 'we exclude VAT'.ScheduleThe success feeThe success fee is set at [ ]% of basic charges and cannot be more than 100% of the basic charges.The percentage reflects:(a) the fact that if you lose, we will not earn anything;(b) the fact that if you win, we will not be paid our basic charges until the end of the claim;(c) our arrangements with you about payment of disbursements;(d) our assessment of the risks of your case.

[These include the following: set out any specific matters relating to the particular case you feel appropriate];(e) [any other matters you feel appropriate].The matters set out at paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) above together constitute [ ]% of the increase on basic charges whilst the matters at paragraphs 5 (d) [and (e)] constitute [ ]% of the increase on basic charges.