One Essex Court has become the first of the big four commercial sets to take a 'no win no fee' case and win.
It was the second no win no fee case the chambers has taken on – it lost the first.
A junior tenant at the set, Michael Fealy, was given the go ahead to act in the case – an appeal before the county court – just before Christmas. Fealy said he took on the case to gain advocacy experience and because he believed it had a good chance of succeeding. He was instructed by Howard Colman, of five-partner London firm Colman Coyle.
"My client had lost a case that we thought he should have won – we wanted to give him the opportunity of appealing without carrying all the risk."
One Essex Court is the first of the big four sets to take on no win no fee work. It is taking requests to do the work on a case by case basis. The others – Fountain Court, Essex Court Chambers and Brick Court Chambers – have yet to take the plunge.
Fountain Court chambers director Ric Martin said his set was in the process of deciding whether or not to accept no win no fee work and would make a decision in a matter of weeks.