If you got hurt in a car accident you didn’t cause, your friends and family may urge you to talk to an attorney. While you may already be dealing with mounting medical bills, the inability to work, and increasing financial uncertainty, you might understandably think that you can’t afford to hire a legal professional.
Attorneys who represent injury victims are familiar with this predicament. As a result, most of them don’t ask clients to pay upfront. Instead, they get to work right away and claim a contingency fee upon resolving the case. Here’s what you need to know about this common fee arrangement.
What Is A Contingency Fee?
Many personal injury lawyers advertise themselves as “no win, no fee.” This means that they work on a contingency basis. In other words, you pay nothing right away, and if your lawyer wins your case, you agree to pay them a percentage of the money they recover for you. That percentage is known as a “contingency fee.”
When an attorney works on a contingency fee basis, they assume the risk involved in the case. They’ll spend time and money building a case; if they lose, they won’t get paid. Because you pay nothing upfront, you don’t have anything to lose if your case is unsuccessful.
That might sound too good to be true, but it’s important to note that lawyers who work on contingency are very selective about the cases they take on. You can’t just “hire” a lawyer to represent you in a personal injury case — you must schedule an initial consultation. If the attorney believes you have a strong case, they’ll likely offer to represent you.
How Much Is A Contingency Fee?
Broadly speaking, contingency fees can be anywhere from 20% to 50% of the total compensation recovered. However, Florida’s Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys limit how much they can collect if they win your case. The amount of the contingency fee depends on two main factors:
- Whether the case is settled before the defendant files an answer to your lawsuit or a demand for arbitration
- How much compensation you’re awarded
If your case settles before the defendant files an answer or demand for arbitration, your attorney may collect contingency fees as follows:
- Up to $1 Million in Compensation: Up to 33⅓%
- Between $1 Million and $2 Million: Up to 30%
- More Than $2 Million: Up to 20%
If the case settles after the defendant files an answer or demand for arbitration or it’s decided in court, your lawyer may collect slightly higher fees:
- Up to $1 Million in Compensation: Up to 40%
- Between $1 Million and $2 Million: Up to 30%
- More Than $2 Million: Up to 20%
These are fee caps, which means some lawyers may charge less. Before agreeing to work with an attorney, you should make sure you fully understand their fee agreement.
Why Is The Contingency Fee Higher If My Case Goes To Court?
Florida allows attorneys to collect a higher contingency fee after the other side files an answer to a lawsuit or a demand for arbitration. These are two steps toward the case being decided in court, so there are several reasons lawyers are allowed to collect a higher fee if a case reaches this stage. For instance:
- They must spend considerable time preparing for trial or arbitration.
- They may need to pay expert witnesses to testify.
- Trial involves considerable risk — there’s a chance they won’t recover any compensation.
Although you may pay a higher contingency fee if your case goes to trial (or comes close to going to trial), it’s worth noting that the fee may effectively pay for itself in some instances. There’s a lot of uncertainty involved in any personal injury trial, but if you win your case, you’ll likely receive more compensation than you would have if you had settled.
Even if your case settles after the other side has responded to a lawsuit but before trial, the settlement offer will typically be higher than it would be otherwise. Defendants who settle at this stage usually do so because they’ve realized they’re unlikely to win a lawsuit, so they may be willing to pay a considerable sum to stop the case from progressing further.
Have You Been Hurt By Someone Else’s Negligence?
If you’ve suffered a devastating injury or lost a loved one because of someone else’s negligent, reckless, or malicious actions, you deserve a legal professional who will take the time to understand your situation and take the necessary steps to help you secure fair compensation.
The talented attorneys at Graves Thomas Rotunda Injury Law Group have advocated for injured Floridians for many years, and we’re confident we can help you, too. Get in touch today to schedule your free consultation.
