How we work and what it costs
- Regulated by the Law Society of Scotland
- Free, with no obligation
- Email reply within 24 hours in office hours
Published by Rooney Family Law Limited, solicitors, regulated by the Law Society of Scotland. Last reviewed 20th September 2026.
Rooney Family Law Limited assesses your injury enquiry free of charge and, with your consent, refers it to a specialist Scottish personal injury firm, which decides whether to accept your case and whether to offer no win no fee funding. We receive a referral payment from that firm if it takes the case on, paid out of the fee that firm earns; under our agreement it must not increase the success fee you are charged. You pay us nothing.
Who does what
Rooney Family Law Limited is a Scottish law firm regulated by the Law Society of Scotland. Our role in your injury claim is limited and we want to be clear about it. We take your enquiry, we correspond with you, we assess whether the claim is one a specialist firm is likely to take on, and we advise you accordingly. We do not run the claim, negotiate with insurers or go to court on it. That is done by the specialist firm, which becomes your solicitor only when it accepts your instructions and you agree its terms. Our assessment is carried out by a solicitor, or by a paralegal working under a named solicitor's supervision, and the solicitor responsible is named in our correspondence with you. Our work for you is limited to that assessment and referral, and we confirm this in writing when we reply.
We work with a small number of Scottish personal injury firms, chosen because they do this work as their main business. We do not name them on this site because they have not authorised us to use their names, but we will tell you which firm we propose before anything about you is sent to it, and you can say no.
What happens after you enquire
Your enquiry goes to a dedicated mailbox at our office and is logged on our case system. We reply by email within 24 hours during office hours, which are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, closed on Scottish public holidays; an enquiry sent on a Friday evening is answered on the Monday. We do not telephone anyone who has not asked us to. Before we advise you we carry out a conflict check, to make sure we do not already act for the person or business you would be claiming against, and we may ask you to confirm your identity.
We ask what happened, when and where, what injuries you have and what treatment you have had, who else was involved, whether you have already spoken to a solicitor or insurer, and whether you are in a trade union or have legal expenses insurance, because either may give you a better route. We then tell you one of three things: that we think the claim is worth referring and which firm we recommend; that we need more information; or that we do not think a specialist firm is likely to take it on, and why.
If we recommend a firm and you agree, we approach it in two steps. We first give it only enough to check that it is free to act: your name, who you would be claiming against, and the date and general location of the accident. Once it confirms that it can act, we send the written summary of your enquiry, with your consent recorded. If it cannot act, we tell you and ask you again before approaching anyone else. The firm contacts you, usually within a few working days, and decides whether to accept the case. We track that decision, and if the firm declines we tell you and consider whether another of our firms might take it. You are told at every stage who is responsible for your matter.
Sending an enquiry does not instruct anyone and does not protect a time limit. Most injury claims in Scotland must be raised in court within three years, and that clock keeps running. If your accident was close to three years ago, or you are unsure when time started, tell us at once, and we will flag it as urgent when we reply. If it is very close, we will say so plainly and tell you to instruct a solicitor directly rather than wait on us.
What no win no fee means in Scotland
A no win no fee agreement, which the law calls a success fee agreement, means that if your claim fails no success fee is payable. If it succeeds, the solicitor keeps a success fee from your compensation. The rules come from the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 and regulations made in 2020, and they are more protective than many people expect. Our full explanation is on what no win no fee means in Scotland; in summary:
The success fee is capped. It cannot exceed 20 per cent of the first £100,000 of your compensation, 10 per cent of the next £400,000 and 2.5 per cent above £500,000, all including VAT, subject to rules protecting certain damages for future loss. The firm must state its actual figure in writing, and it may be lower.
Ordinary outlays are not separately charged. The law does not allow the solicitor to bill you separately for the ordinary costs of running the claim, such as medical reports and court fees. The one exception is the premium for an insurance policy taken out to protect you, which the firm must tell you about in advance.
Read the agreement. No success fee is payable if the claim fails, but the written agreement explains any insurance premium and the circumstances in which other costs could arise, for example if you end the agreement early, do not follow the firm's advice, or give it inaccurate information.
You are normally protected against the other side's costs. For proceedings begun on or after 30th June 2021, qualified one-way costs shifting normally protects injury claimants from paying their opponent's expenses if the claim fails. The exceptions are fraud, manifestly unreasonable conduct or abuse of process by you or your representative; failing to beat a formal court offer, called a tender; unreasonably delaying acceptance of a tender; abandoning the proceedings; and summary decree against you in the sheriff court. Where an exception applies in the tender cases, what you can be ordered to pay is limited, including a cap of 75 per cent of your damages.
How we are paid
You pay us nothing. When a specialist firm accepts a case we have referred, that firm pays Rooney Family Law a referral payment or a share of its success fee, under a written agreement between the two firms. Payments between solicitors of this kind are permitted under the Law Society of Scotland's practice rules.
That payment comes out of the fee the specialist firm earns. The firm absorbs it as a cost of taking on new work, in the same way as any other cost of finding clients. Under our written agreement with the firm, the payment must not be added to, or increase, the success fee charged to you. It is therefore not an additional deduction from your compensation.
To be clear about what is deducted: if your claim succeeds, the specialist firm's success fee does come out of your compensation, as it would for any client of that firm. What our arrangement cannot do is make that fee any higher because you came through us. Two further protections apply and you can check both. Scottish law sets a maximum success fee, and it applies to the firm whether you came through us or walked into its office. And the firm must set out its actual success fee in writing, in its own agreement with you, before you sign anything. Read that agreement, and ask us or the firm about anything that is not clear.
We tell you about this arrangement here, and again when we ask your consent to refer you, because you are entitled to know that we have a financial interest in the referral. Our advice on whether a claim is worth referring is given by a solicitor bound by professional rules, and we will tell you when we think a claim should not proceed.
What we will not do
We will not tell you a claim is strong when it is not. We will not pass your details to anyone without telling you who and getting your agreement. We will not share your enquiry with more than one firm at a time. We will not cold call you or anyone else. We will not act in medical negligence claims beyond explaining what such a claim needs, because they require specialist screening we do not provide.
If we decline to refer your claim
That is our professional assessment on the information you have given us. It is not a ruling and it does not prevent you asking another solicitor. We will tell you the reason in plain terms, and if the reason is a missing piece of information or evidence, we will tell you what it is.
Your information
To assess an injury claim we need details of your injuries, which are health data. We ask for your explicit consent to handle that information when you enquire. Your details are held on our case management system, are never placed in web addresses or analytics, are shared only with the firm you agree to, and are deleted after the retention period set out in our privacy notice.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with our service, our complaints procedure explains how to raise it with us and, if you remain dissatisfied, with the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. Complaints about the specialist firm's handling of your claim should be raised with that firm under its own procedure.
Questions people ask
Why not just go to the specialist firm directly?
You can. Our service is for people who do not know who to go to, who want a first opinion from a regulated law firm before committing, or who would rather their enquiry was handled by solicitors than by an advertising company.
Is 20 per cent what I will actually pay?
It is the maximum the law allows. The specialist firm's agreement will state its actual figure, which may be lower.
Can I change solicitor later?
Yes, though the agreement with the specialist firm will usually say you may have to pay for work done before you left. Read it before you sign.
Tell us what happened
We assess your enquiry free of charge and, with your consent, refer good claims to a specialist personal injury firm, which decides whether to take your case on. We receive a referral payment from that firm, paid out of the fee it earns; under our agreement it must not increase the success fee you are charged.
Sources for this page: Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018, sections 1 to 8; Success Fee Agreements (Scotland) Regulations 2020, regulations 2 and 4; Act of Sederunt (Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting) 2021; Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2021; Law Society of Scotland Practice Rules 2011; Scottish Legal Complaints Commission; UK GDPR, Article 9.