Hiring the services of a credible personal injury attorney is significant to represent your cases in court and obtain maximum compensation for your damages. Most people may mull over the experience and success rate of a personal injury lawyer before breaking a deal with them. When it comes to fee, people usually rely on the lawyers who work on a contingency fee basis.
Some people may jump into a conclusion in this case without inquiring further details such as the services included in the fee, cost of other legal services, etc. The only thing that runs in their head when signing such deals will be the fact that they have to pay only if they won the case. However, having only a vague outline about the attorney fee can sometimes put you in trouble. It is to be noted that not every attorney fee contract will be the same. Hence, it is highly recommended to go through every single line of your contract before signing it. For better clarity, you may ask the following questions to your personal injury attorney.
What is Contingency Fee?
The contingency fee is a practice of paying a percentage of the compensation to a personal injury lawyer as the fee instead of a fixed or hourly fee. In other words, you will have to pay the fees only if you obtain compensation for your damages. This will be a great help for the people or victims who lack financial resources to seek justice otherwise. Usually, the contingency fee is associated with issues such as wage and hour, employment, government fraud, and other personal injury cases.
What is an Ideal Contingency Fee Percentage?
Ideally, the percentage of contingency fee tends to range from 33 to 40. However, this will depend on the complexity of the case as well as the type of law. You will be amazed to know that some top-notch legal firms even offer their services at a contingency fee of 25%. On a related note, lower rates mostly depend on the following factors.
- Undisputed liability
- A settlement that does not involve filing a lawsuit or court trials
- Time limitations
- Undisputed medical causation
- Clients who are ready to bear all their expenses including the medical bills, treatment expenses, etc., irrespective of the compensation amount that they are entitled to
Since most of the personal injury cases do not meet the above-mentioned limitations, people usually end up paying more than 25% of the compensation that they achieved as the attorney fee. Additionally, inquire about the costs that are covered and excluded in the fee. It will better if your personal injury lawyer can provide an estimate of your overall attorney fee.