What Is a Typical Fee Structure for Personal Injury Lawyers?
Personal Injury Attorney Fees and Expenses
Most plaintiff lawyers in personal injury cases represent their clients
on a contingency fee basis. This means that the client does not pay attorney
fees or expenses unless/until they receive a recovery. So if the attorney
doesn’t win the case and the client gets no money, the client does
not have to pay attorney fees and expenses. If the plaintiff’s attorney
does win and a recovery is secured, the attorney fees and expenses are
taken out of that total amount.
Generally, the percentage taken out for attorney fees and expenses will
differ from case to case, but can be anywhere in the range of 20-40%.
We encourage you to
speak directly with a lawyer about the potential merits of your claim, how much your specific case
could be worth, and what the attorney fees and expenses might be.
The benefit of a contingency fee model is that the plaintiff does not have
to worry about upfront fees to retain an attorney. You have the freedom
to choose the attorney best suited to meet your needs, regardless of cost.
With this type of fee structure, the attorney shares your risk as well
as your reward. If the attorney doesn’t win the case, they don’t
get paid either, and typically, lawyers spend thousands or hundreds of
thousands of dollars litigating these cases, and months or years of their time.
