You’ve no doubt heard of the dreaded ‘billable hours’ arrangement that lawyers use. The good news is that if you file a personal injury claim for a car accident, a dog bite, a slip and fall accident, or something similar, your lawyer will probably bill you a contingency fee instead.
This arrangement will probably work better for both of you in a personal injury case, and that’s true for numerous reasons.
Paying for Legal Services
Attorneys offer several different ways to pay for their services, depending on the type of case you bring to them. The three most popular billing forms are the flat fee, billable hours, and the contingency fee arrangement. Some lawyers offer hybrid fee arrangements.
Flat Fee
In a flat fee arrangement, the lawyer will tell you the exact amount of your legal fee, in dollars and cents, before they begin working on your case. Lawyers like to use the flat fee arrangement when it is easy to determine how much work a case will require. It is most popular in certain types of immigration law, criminal defense, estate law, bankruptcy, and estate planning.
An example of a flat fee arrangement would be the preparation of a US citizenship application for a foreign national. For most lawyers, the fee is the same regardless of the outcome of the application.
Billable Hours
Under the billable hours system, you pay your lawyer wages. We’re not talking minimum wage—lawyers may charge hundreds of dollars per hour for their services. This system makes sense for the lawyer when they don’t know how much time your case will require. If they charge a flat fee and your case takes a lot more time than they anticipated, they might indeed end up working for minimum wage.
Contingency Fee
Under a contingency fee arrangement, you and your lawyer agree that their attorney’s fees will equal a certain percentage of whatever amount you recover – whether through a settlement agreement or jury verdict. The typical contingency fee ranges from 30% to 40%.
Advantages of the Contingency Fee System
In a nutshell, the advantages of the contingency fee system are:
- Your lawyer’s interests are aligned with yours. The more you win, the more your lawyer wins, and vice versa. Contrast this with your interest vs. the interests of an insurance company you filed a claim against. Your interests contradict each other because the more you win, the more the insurance company has to pay you.
- No matter your financial circumstances, you can afford to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer.
- Since lawyers only get paid if they win, they will not take a losing case just to increase their billable hours.
Your lawyer enjoys benefits from the contingency fee system as well. Suppose, for example, that you win $10 million on a 30% contingency fee.
Factors That Influence the Amount of Your Contingency Fee
The following factors matter when it comes to calculating your contingency fee:
- Whether your case goes to trial. Going to trial will probably raise your contingency fee.
- The size of your claim. The more money that’s at stake, the lower your contingency fee is likely to be.
- Your likelihood of victory.
- The amount of time your case is likely to take.
- Your lawyer’s experience and reputation.
- Conditions in your local legal market.
- Ethical constraints on contingency fees (enforced by the state bar association).
Other factors might matter too, depending on your individual circumstances.
Case Expenses
Below are some examples of typical case expenses that your lawyer might pay to a third party:
- Appraiser fees for property damage
- Costs of conducting medical or vocational exams
- Costs of obtaining documents
- Costs of obtaining public records (property records, driving records, and more)
- Investigation costs (hiring a private investigator and more)
- Costs of preparing and filing motions
- Court filing fees
- Deposition costs
- Expert witness fees
- Fees for certified copies of documents
- Fees for serving subpoenas on witnesses
- Jury fees
- Long-distance phone charges
- Medical records
- Mediation or arbitration fees
- Online legal research subscriptions
- Postage and courier fees
- Service of process fees (to notify the defendant of the lawsuit)
- Travel expenses for the attorney and witnesses
- Translation costs
- Trial exhibits
- Video conferencing fees
Lawyers differ in terms of how they treat these expenses. Check with your attorney and the terms of your agreement to be sure.
A Skilled Columbia Personal Injury Lawyer Can Multiply the Value of Your Claim
A lawyer cannot guarantee that your case will be successful any more than a doctor can guarantee that your surgery will be successful. Nevertheless, there are actions you can take that will better the odds of a favorable outcome for you. One of these actions is to hire an experienced Columbia personal injury lawyer. Contact our law firm, Jeffcoat Injury and Car Accident Lawyers, at (803) 373-1706.
