When a person suffers an accident where injuries are involved and a third party is responsible, the general recommendation is to hire personal injury attorneys, as the specialized attorney for this specific type of circumstance.

Since, such situation would fit into a personal injury or tort description, giving right to issue a claim and request monetary compensation.

By hiring an accident attorney, the probability of actually receiving such financial return increases greatly, hence this professional provides valuable legal representation, support and an entire set of resources that allow to come up with a strong and winning case and fair settlement.

However, despite the aforementioned benefits of hiring legal advising when dealing with a personal injury case, many victims decide not to get a lawyer and file a claim themselves.

The main reason for this to happen is the belief that attorneys are expensive. But, when it comes to personal injury lawyers, there is a key and important aspect: contingency fee. Let´s address this important feature respecting solicitor´s service pricing.

Personal injury attorneys and contingency fee: No win, no pay

What does a contingency fee mean? In basic words, a contingency fee is the charging approach most of the personal injury lawyers carry out to put a price on their service, by receiving no payments upfront at all and charging a deductible cut off of the settlement, by winning the case.

In this way, lawyer´s service is paid at the end of the process with some conditions. Of course, this is a huge advantage for those that are suffering an accident and have doubts regarding hiring a personal injury attorney or not. Basically, solicitor´s fees are not covered by the plaintiff directly, but by the at-fault´s insurance company.

If the claim and lawsuit filing is not successful and the settlement is not achieved, the lawyer charges nothing to the plaintiff. This is what is called the “no win, no pay” approach and is quite common.

Logically, expert lawyers will take cases with actual winning potential and characteristics that benefit the claimant. For this to happen, legal representation will study the case and will find proven third party´s accountability, medical bills and reports, suffered injuries and more.

Contingency fees percentages and “sliding case” approach

At the moment of hiring the lawyer, the service contract will include a clause addressing a contingency fee agreement, establishing the percentage and cut the attorney will receive at the end of the process.

Usually, the professional of the law will take at least a third of the paid settlement as fee. Now, this is negotiable with the client at the moment of hiring the attorney. Frequently, a 33% fee is what is paid when it comes to contingency fee approach.

Nevertheless, the fee may increase if the lawyer applies the “sliding case” approach. In details, what this means is that depending on the stage in which the case is resolved, general payment is higher or not.

For instance, if the case is solved before filing a lawsuit a third of the settlement is fine. However, if the case requires filing a lawsuit and even getting to court, the fee percentage can go from 40 to 50% and more.