While many lawyers charge an up-front fee for their services, you'll likely find many personal injury lawyers who work on contingency. This guide will help you understand how the contingency policy works in a personal injury lawsuit.
How Contingency Fees Work
A contingency fee helps to ensure that your lawyer is paid only for the value they provide to you as a client. If your trial is unsuccessful, the lawyer will cut their own losses. If the trial does produce a settlement, then the injury lawyer will take a set percentage of the fees before the winnings are passed on to you. Your personal injury attorney may even put up some money out of their own pocket for evidence analysis, expert witnesses, and other facets of your trial.
The contingency fee can be a great thing if you aren't in a financial position to sue someone on your own. You won't have many costs up front, which will allow you to focus on healing and providing good information for you persona injury trial. It's important to find a personal injury lawyer who will put in considerable effort to earn their contingency fee since it may represent a sizable portion of your settlement.
The Attorney's Rate
You will most likely agree on the rate of the contingency fee ahead of time when you sign the initial contract. That rate will generally be between 33 to 40 percent of your earnings. Note that the attorney's rate will usually be deducted from the gross payout after the amounts you owe to insurance and medical professionals are subtracted.
An Attorney's Effect on Your Payouts
If you want to hire a personal injury attorney for your case, it's important to consider whether they can significantly increase the payouts of your case. If the lawyer can increase your settlement by more than 30 or 40 percent, for instance, then they will more than pay for their own fees. Even if your added payout only falls close to this amount, it might be worth it; the added earnings will simply pay for the lawyer, and the lawyer will make your life simpler in turn by handling most of the grunt work.
So, is an attorney worth it? It depends on the total payout you expect, as well as how successful the lawyer is at arguing for additional damages such as psychological injury and extended medical coverage. Ask a personal injury lawyer what they estimate that they can do for your case.
Share1 August 2016
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