On 1 April 2013, the majority of the Jackson/civil litigation reforms came into force. As a result of those changes, where a CFA is entered into on or after 1 April 2013, any success fee under that CFA is no longer recoverable from the other side, save in the excepted cases. For more information on success fees in those cases, see Practice note, Success fees in conditional fee agreements entered into from 1 April 2013.

This note explains what a success fee is and how to calculate a success fee, outlines the legal requirements for success fees, and discusses the recoverability of success fees in litigation where the conditional fee agreement (CFA) was entered into before 1 April 2013, or before or after that date in insolvency-related proceedings (where the CFA was entered into before 6 April 2016), publication and privacy proceedings (where the CFA was entered into before 6 April 2019) or mesothelioma claims (together, the excepted cases).