When you or a loved one has suffered injury from an accident that has been caused by the fault or negligence of another person, you are entitled to claim compensation under law. You require the right kind of legal representation to present your case either to a jury at trial or to represent you in negotiations with insurance companies who are responsible for most of the pay-outs.

Difference Between Personal Injury Lawyers and Other Lawyers

In most cases, personal injury lawyers do not charge fees upfront. Instead, they make arrangements with clients to collect their fees only if they win the case and secure compensation for their clients. This may be a percentage of the total damages awarded. Unlike other lawyers, for example, commercial lawyers, real-estate lawyers, criminal and family lawyers generally bill their clients on an hourly basis. Some of them may charge a block fee which they receive from legal aid, if the client is unable to pay. Constitutional lawyers get paid by the government or by lobbyists. Personal and accident injury lawyers are perhaps the only ones who charge contingency fees, by which it is meant that their payment is contingent upon a win. 

Why Contingency Fees Make Sense

In most serious accident cases, victims are hard-pressed for money, with mounting medical and care-giver expenses, loss of income and recurring household maintenance. In such cases, they would hardly be in a position to put out large sums of money to hire personal injury lawyers. Hence, the convention has been to wait for a final settlement before collecting fees.

Another very important aspect is that if personal injury lawyers were to charge clients on an hourly basis, insurance companies would delay and drag on the case interminably, knowing that it puts clients under severe pressure to settle as quickly as possible. Obviously, large insurance companies have the staying power to continue filing motions in court, citing this reason or that, so that the case takes years to reach verdict or settlement. Very few clients would be able to afford the mounting legal fees in such a case.

Keeping this fact in mind, personal injury lawyers charge a contingency fee that would compel insurance companies to settle claims as early as possible. Typically, insurance companies do take a long time to analyze all aspects of the case and come to settlement. Hence a contingency fee arrangement would suit the client as they are not under pressure to settle.

What Contingency Fees Include

Personal injury lawyers’ fees are typically deducted from the final settlement in negotiations, or upon reaching the final verdict in a trial. Expenses incurred by the lawyers/law-firm may also be charged. Typically, in most cases, the percentage of fees charged would be somewhere in the region of 30-45% of the total recovery. However, this can vary from lawyer to lawyer, firm to firm and may be negotiable.

Additional Expenses

Lawyers and law firms have to incur large expenses in the course of building a water-tight case. They have to provide money upfront for several different things and need to pay out large sums for:

• Medical records
• Exhibits showing injuries
• Police photographs
• Witness depositions
• Expert depositions
• Accident reconstruct experts
• Background investigations
• Scientific investigations
• Photocopying charges
• Postage
• Police reports
• Filing fees

These fees do not go to the personal injury lawyers themselves. Instead they are costs incurred by them or their firm and are unavoidable expenses that are part of your claim and the court system. 

What Clients Should Know 

As a client, you need to enter into a fee agreement with our car accident lawyers or personal injury lawyers in which all terms and conditions are clearly laid out. There are two options available: Either the costs are deducted before the fee percentage is calculated or they are deducted after. The latter option means that your share of the settlement is substantially reduced.

There may be regular expenses like telephone calls and photocopying – these cannot always be quantifiable initially in an agreement. Instead, clients can get an agreement that sets a dollar limit on expenses beyond which the lawyer needs your clearance before incurring costs on.

No Win No Fee Lawyers

In many cases, lawyers offer terms like no win no fee, free consultation lawyers etc. There is usually a clause in the contract with the client that waives any expenses and fees in the event that the case comes up with an unsuccessful verdict. Hence, the client does not have the burden of paying out money for a lost case.

If you, your family or a friend has been injured in an accident, please feel free to speak to one of our injury lawyers for a free consultation about how we are able to assist in making a personal injury claim. We consult in all cities across Ontario with a no win no fee guarantee. Our personal injury lawyers have helped victims secure millions of dollars in personal injury cases. Call us Toll Free On our 24/7 Injury Hotline: 1 – 844 495 7333.