Worried about how you’ll ever afford a lawyer after a serious accident?
You are not alone. Life after a catastrophic crash or life altering injury, medical bills begin to pile up quickly… And nobody needs another bill on the kitchen table.
Here’s the good news:
The vast majority of personal injury attorneys will not cost you a dime. They operate on what is known as a “contingency fee.” Essentially, it’s a little trick that turns the financial aspect upside down.
Ok but like how does it work tho? And what do you really end up paying after the case ends?
Let’s break it all down…
What’s Coming Up:
- What Is a Contingency Fee?
- Why Injury Lawyers Get Paid This Way
- What Percentage Does a Catastrophic Injury Lawyer Take?
- What Gets Deducted Before You See a Dime
- Questions To Ask Before You Sign
What Is a Contingency Fee?
A contingency fee is an arrangement where your attorney only gets paid when they win your case.
No win, no fee. Simple as that.
Rather than billing you hourly, the attorney receives a predetermined portion of your recovery. The fee is paid out of the settlement or trial award. If you don’t recover anything, you typically don’t pay attorney’s fees.
That’s why a qualified catastrophic injury attorney works on contingency. If you hire one, your lawyer assumes the financial risk. The knowledgeable injury attorneys at Meshbesher work on serious injury cases this way so that victims of accidents can seek justice without spending money upfront.
Pretty reassuring, right?
Why Do Injury Lawyers Get Paid This Way?
Think about it for a second…
The individuals who could benefit most from having a lawyer after a severe accident are typically those who can least afford it. They’re unemployed. They have mountains of hospital bills. They don’t have a stash of money lying around.
The contingency model fixes that.
It eliminates the financial aspect and empowers regular citizens to fight against massive insurance companies with endless resources and armies of attorneys. This is significant when you’re dealing with the most serious cases. Those tend to have the highest numbers. Lifetime medical costs for the most severe spinal cord injuries exceeds $5 million, per the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center.
No regular family has that kind of money lying around.
And don’t forget… The larger the case, the more difficult the insurance company fights. Without an attorney on a contingency fee, most victims would have no choice but to accept the low offer the insurance company puts on the table. Doesn’t sound very fair at all…
There is another huge benefit as well. When your attorney only gets paid if you win, they have incentive to fight for every penny. Your lawyer’s objective and your objective suddenly become one and the same:
Winning the biggest possible payout.
What Percentage Does a Catastrophic Injury Lawyer Take?
Here’s the part everyone wants to know about…
A typical contingency fee will range from one-third and 40% of your recovery. Statistics indicate that personal injury fees range most often from one-third to 40% of the total settlement amount.
So what decides where you fall in that range?
It usually depends on how far your case needs to go. Many attorneys use what’s known as a “sliding scale“. It’s similar to this:
- Lower fee — if case settles expeditiously, prior to filing of a lawsuit
- Middle fee — when a suit needs to be filed to move forward
- Higher fee — if the case goes all the way to trial
Why jump? A trial equals more time, more risk and significantly more work for your attorneys.
Remember this: That number is not mandated by Congress. It is written into the contract you sign, so read your contract carefully before signing.
What Gets Deducted Before You See a Dime?
Now for something most people don’t realise…
The contingency fee isn’t the only deduction from your settlement. Typically, there are also case costs involved—and those are separate from the attorney’s fee.
Case costs are expenses your attorney pays out-of-pocket to develop your case. They may include:
- Court filing fees
- Medical record charges
- Expert witnesses (like accident or medical specialists)
- Investigation and police report costs
Typically, these expenses are paid by firms in advance. They then deduct them from your final settlement. So your check is the gross recovery, minus liens, minus case costs, minus contingency fee.
The best part is that most of these expenses typically aren’t coming out of pocket along the way. They are typically settled all at once at the end directly from the recovery.
Here’s the thing you have to nail down early:
Are case costs taken out before or after the fee is calculated?
It’s a small thing. But it can affect your take-home pay. Your attorney should discuss all of these details, in English, well before you sign anything.
Questions To Ask Before You Sign
Don’t just nod along and sign the first agreement put in front of you.
Ask a few simple questions first:
- What’s your contingency fee percentage?
- Does that percentage change if the case goes to trial?
- Are case costs taken out before or after your fee?
- What happens to those costs if you lose?
Any good attorney will gladly walk you through each of these. If they evade your questions or try to hurry you…consider that a BIG warning sign.
Tying It All Together
So there you have it.
A contingency fee is a no win, no fee agreement that allows injury victims to access the best legal representation for free. It’s how the everyday person can fight a big insurance company when they’ve been seriously injured in an accident.
To quickly recap:
- The fee is a percentage of your settlement, usually a third to 40%
- You pay nothing in legal fees if you don’t win
- Case costs come out separately, so ask how they’re handled
- A trial usually means a higher percentage
Dealing with a life altering injury should not allow financial obligations of an attorney to stress you out. The contingency model is designed to relieve you of that stress… So you can concentrate on what’s important – your recovery.
