First of all, it is important to discuss how attorneys get paid when they represent you for a case or a claim. Most attorneys will have you come in for a free consultation, where they review your case and discuss your expectation for reimbursement of your personal injury claim.
The free consultation will go over the documentation for your losses, damages, and personal injuries. This may come in the form of medical billings, expenses that you have incurred since the accident, lost wages, or any damage to your vehicle if you were in a car accident. If you have experienced pain and suffering, this will be discussed too. If you have a long-standing chronic injury now because of the accident, or if you need further surgeries to help you heal after the accident, that will be reviewed as well.
The settlement that you will be receiving is more than likely going to come from the wrongdoer’s insurance company. Once the attorney has established a duty of care, negligence in the exercise of that duty, and that your injuries were the proximate cause of those actions, there will be an interest to go against the wrongdoer. The person who caused your accident will usually have insurance and will not be reimbursing your personal injury expenses from their pocketbook. The insurance companies are well versed in managing and settling out these types of claims.
In life, there are times when you are better served to hire an expert. If you have a problem with your central air-conditioning, you will most likely call an HVAC specialist or technician. Of course, some people can perform repairs on their homes themselves, which is great. It will save them money. Getting HVAC certified is a skill that is highly sought after for people who want to work repairing these systems in homes. In the same vein, an attorney is a highly sought-after professional when you have a legal issue to manage in your life.
Attorneys have a high level of experience in legal matters, and they are certainly the right people to call when you have a verified legal issue. Now, it is important to get the right attorney for the job. In the same way, you would not hire a plumber to fix your air-conditioner unit in your home. You need to hire an attorney who can be an expert in the area you need representation in at the time.
It can be said that all attorneys go to law school, and all attorneys need to pass their state boards. But the similarities of attorneys might end right there. Attorneys can have a high or low level of expertise when it comes to representing a client for a specific type of legal issue. This is because some attorneys have been working longer, have more mentors at a law firm, or are working on their own and don’t have the opportunity to settle many client cases.
When you have a pressing legal issue or a claim you need to be managed to get the settlement you need to recover from a personal injury, you will need to talk to a personal injury attorney who has handled these types of claims in the past. Our law office has handled personal injury claims regularly, and we can manage all types of personal injury claims related to accidents. We will connect you to one of our attorneys when you give us a call, and we look forward to working with you on your legal claim.
Many attorneys charge contingency fees to allow the client to make a payment on the attorney’s time only after the case is settled or “won.” For example, if you had to pay an attorney for the billable hours and time leading up to the settlement, you may not have the money on hand yet. This is because you will have to manage your other normal monthly bills, and the medical bills coming in related to your accident and the personal injury you suffered are above and beyond this amount of money in your bank account.
Look at it this way, you need to settle the claim for your personal injuries with the negligent party’s insurance company as soon as possible, but you don’t want to rush it, in that you want them to give you the full amount of a settlement that will make you “whole” again. In the case that you have more surgeries needed after the injury or have more therapies or medications that will be required to help you heal, you will want to be reimbursed for all of these anticipated upcoming expenses at the settlement of the claim. This means that your final settlement with the insurance company has to be all-inclusive, you can’t forget anything! You will only get one chance to make this settlement, and your attorney is the best person to help you get this right.
Let’s look at how the percentage of payment of fees for a personal injury attorney is calculated. Each attorney will set the percentage of fees for their services. This fee is typically between 30% and 40% or so, but it depends on the case, the attorney, and the attorney’s guidelines related to the case. You will be signing a contract that you agree to these fees and percentage to reimburse the attorney for all work on the case. All of these fees will be discussed as you agree to have your attorney represent you for the personal injury claims that you currently are pursuing settlement for at this time.
Then how are personal injury contingency fees calculated? Well, they are calculated like this: if the contingency fee is a percentage say of 35%, then that amount will be taken “off the top” for the attorney fees when the case is settled. Suppose the attorney also has any expenses related to settling and handling the case. In that case, these expenses will be added back into the total amount due to the attorney for your representation in this case as well.
Okay, we are ready to do a little math at this point. If the contingency fee is 35% (not including any expenses) and the settlement is for $100,000, then the attorney will be paid $35,000, and you will receive $65,000. This is easy to understand. Let’s use a smaller number to ensure we get it.
If the settlement is for $1,000 and the contingency fee is 35%, then the attorney multiplies 35% times the settlement of $1,000 to get $350.00. That $350 is subtracted from the total settlement of $1,000, leaving $650. Therefore, the $350 goes to the attorney for the contingency fee (not including any expenses, which are also added back in). The money left over goes to you as your total final settlement (minus attorney fees), which in this case is $650.
Now, let’s look at some other potential settlement packages to calculate the attorney fees taken and your grant of a final settlement. We will stick with the contingency fee of 35% as a hypothetical fee for all of these examples.
If there is a 35% contingency fee, and the settlement is $600,000, then the attorney gets $210,000 and you receive $390,000. This is 65% (100% – 35% = 65%) of the final settlement.
If you receive a settlement of $1 million, then the attorney fees at a contingency fee of 35% will be $350,000 to the attorney, and you will receive $650,000.
If the settlement is for $9 million, and the attorney fees are at 35% contingency fee, the attorney will get $3.15 million, and you will receive $5.85 million as reimbursement for your personal injuries on this settlement of your claim.
As mentioned, it is important to hire an experienced injury and accident attorney to help you get the full settlement you deserve for your personal injury claim. When you give us a call, you will get highly experienced attorneys ready to talk to you about your upcoming claim.
We will be able to discuss this case with you and determine the exact nature of the percentage of fees that the personal attorney receives, and help you to build this case to find out if you can recover compensation for your losses. Just give us a call at the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm right now. We are here for you every step of the way. Call us at (833) 254-2923 today to discuss your legal issues with an expert attorney on our team.