1. Conditional Fees: Not the easy option that many people assume that they are. As well as the fees of your solicitor there may be costs for a counsel's advice, medical fees and other court costs which may or may not be covered by insurance for the legal fees.
2. The most likely settlement apparently is a settlement out of court. A solicitor is apparently entitled to his fees straight away then, including his "top up fee" for taking a risk. (As solicitors are likely to take only cases which they are fairly certain of winning, clients may not think the risk so great!) He will not gain much more apparently by going to court so there is a potential conflict between the interests of his client and his own interests.
3. An uncomfortable situation can arise when a solicitor advises his client to accept a payment into court that is significantly below the compensation his client is expecting and in fact, by the time the solicitor's fees are paid from it, the client might be left with very little. Also, it seems that under the conditional fee agreement which the client has had to sign, if he disagrees with his solicitor and refuses to accept the payment in, his solicitor can ask for immediate payment of his fees in full from his client, leaving the client to cope with his case alone.