While it’s important to take some satisfaction in a job, monetary compensation remains the largest motivator. This is the basis is of trade and commerce: a person deserves compensation for their time and labor. We toss in some bonuses for tasks that require more specialized knowledge, ones that pose a higher risk, and those that have sliding scales of competency.
Many industries self-regulate through the power of the market. When it comes to typical attorney fees for persona injury cases, the system is the same but harder to see the underpinnings.
Whenever cost structures and the expenses of a business are unknown, it becomes hard to see how they charge what they do. With a little background knowledge and a quick walk in their patent-leathers, attorney fees make a lot more sense.
Read on to get your peek behind the curtain of these seemingly nebulous fee structures.
Typical Attorney Fees for Personal Injury
Lawyers shape the fees for their services like most other services. Competition between attorneys and firms drive costs down and performance up. Attorneys fight to save costs by reducing overhead to keep their businesses viable in ever-changing times.
One difference faced by personal injury lawyers in setting fees is they also have to abide by strict rules of transparency. These come in part from a professional code of conduct and in part from laws about binding language.
Attorneys, unlike many businesses, can’t simply state a set price with an asterisk because that fails to cover the huge pool of differences in cases.
After sitting down with an attorney, such as Preszler Law for a free consultation, you’ll only receive estimates on the fees and costs.
The law firm you contact will have a detailed contract explaining their fee structures and estimates of costs after the consultation. It’s important to understand opt-ins on the services and negotiate costs you should be alerted to before they are spent.
Fee Types
Attorneys adopt different fee structures to accommodate case types. For personal injury attorneys, it’s often in their interest to offer a no-cost-up-front model to get clients in the door. It also works for clients, who often cannot pay large costs, especially after an injury.
Other fee types calculate into the back end of billing.
Costs and fees are two different things. Fees are what an attorney charges for their services. Costs represent money that needs to be spent to work a case.
In the end, you will be billed for both.
Contingency
The most common type of personal attorney fees is contingency. This is a fee structure where the attorney takes their fees and costs out of the settlement at the end of a case.
These fees tend to be higher than other types of legal costs because of the gamble involved. Since the attorney only gets paid if they win the case, and not all cases are winnable, the attorney takes a large percentage.
These percentages range between 25% and 45% depending on the type of injury, the jurisdiction, and the facts involved. You’ll find a lot of places offering a soft 33% as an industry-wide average.
Hourly
Hourly billing is the standard for attorneys working on litigation or time heavy legal matters.
Hourly charges are an exact amount charged in ten-minute rounded increments.
You only really see hourly billing when a personal injury lawsuit becomes a class action.
However, if your case involves suing another individual (rather than a company) for an injury, that person may counter sue and an hourly rate could be applied.
Retainers
This fee structure involves a deposit made to the attorney to secure their services. This is more often seen in criminal and corporate work. For a personal injury attorney, a retainer would only be required if accessing information to confirm the viability of a case was especially steep.
Cost Components
Costs are typical expenses paid out of pocket by a law firm to do the work. In legal jargon, these are called disbursements.
Most of these costs get itemized as part of your bill and represent the total charge for your case. Again, if working on contingency, you’ll only see these if the case is won.
Staff
Staff costs are included in the fees. These are costs that the firm pays to run its in-house staff. Even if they hire new staff specifically to handle the workload associated with your case, you shouldn’t see this itemized as a cost but built into the fee structure.
Third Parties
Third parties, on the other hand, will be itemized as expenses.
These are experts paid to review information outside the lawyer’s purview. Doctors, investigators, and experts in either injury or tools are common. These people don’t work for the attorney and demand individual fees for their time.
Expenses related to third parties also tend to show up multiple times. They are paid for consulting, depositions, and testimonies in a trial. Some experts work on one fee, assuming all of the above will be needed, others compartmentalize.
Supplies
Supplies related to your cases also get billed individually. While it is the law firm that pays for copies and phone charges and pens and so on, if they are purchased for your case, they are charged to your bill.
This keeps the expenses specific and fair. Attorneys don’t want to charge you for materials used for other clients and doing so puts them in trouble for double billing.
Court and Mandated
The final set of expenses an attorney places into your overall bill are mandated costs that apply to legal activities. Courts charge filing costs for paperwork. There are different costs for arbitration, which can end quickly and take little room, and for a full trial which takes up more time and more people, resources the commonwealth or state needs some compensation for.
Your Source
It’s always important to negotiate the fees relative to the strength of the case you have. Typical attorney fees for personal injury tend to come with contracts that spell out amounts. Ask for clarification and rewording when you feel it’s needed.
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