What is a contingency fee?
A contingency fee (or contingent fee) is an arrangement with your attorney where the fee is dependent (contingent) on the outcome of your case. In a contingency fee agreement, you pay your lawyer nothing out of pocket. Our firm advances the costs to move your case forward, such as acquiring documents, hiring expert witnesses, taking depositions, and so on.
If we win your case – whether through a negotiated settlement with the insurance company, or a jury verdict – then our fee is a percentage of the money we recover for you, so you still don’t pay us anything out of pocket. If we don’t win, we don’t get paid.*
Contingency fees are distinct from pro bono work, which is legal work done for free with no expectation of payment regardless of the outcome. We work on a contingency fee because it forces us to focus on results and provides the resources we need to keep representing injured people.
We know the stakes, and we’re invested in your case
When we work on contingency, we’re in the thick of our cases with our clients. Your fight is our fight, and we go all-in on the outcome. We don’t charge an hourly or retainer fee; we get paid to get results, period. In short, we go above and beyond to win our clients’ cases because we’re fully invested in the result.
When you hire a personal injury lawyer on contingency, you have much to gain. On average, people who hire a lawyer recover much more than those who don’t, even after the attorney’s fees are taken into account. Indeed, the insurance industry’s own research bears this out. The contingency fee agreement means we assume the risk of loss and advance the costs to move your case forward while you focus on healing.
Not all contingency fee agreements are the same. We would be more than happy to review our contingency fee agreement and answer any other questions you may have during a free consultation.
*Please note that the contingency fee only applies to fees charged by your attorney. There may be other costs that the client is responsible for in a losing case, such as court costs, filing fees, and the opposing side’s costs.
