What Do Personal Injury Attorneys Charge?
If you were seriously hurt through no fault of your own, you may be thinking about taking legal action against those who were responsible. Since money is probably tight, though—unanticipated injuries are enough to threaten nearly everyone’s financial security, after all—you may be planning on representing yourself.
While you’re certainly entitled to take on the liable party alone, you may not be able to secure as large a payout as you could if you retained legal counsel. Fortunately, most reputable personal injury attorneys don’t actually charge their clients upfront, nor do they require a retainer for their ongoing services.
Instead, they charge a contingency fee. As the name implies, this fee is contingent on the outcome of the case.
If your claim yields a settlement or verdict in your favor, your lawyer is entitled to a percentage of that payout. If, on the other hand, your case proves unsuccessful, you are not responsible for any attorney’s fees. You may, however, still have to cover court costs, filing fees, and related expenses that your legal team incurred on your behalf over the course of the proceedings.
Does Florida Cap Contingency Fees?
While you certainly want your lawyer to have a stake in the outcome of your case, you don’t want to have to surrender a significant portion of the resulting payout. Thankfully, Florida has capped contingency fees, thereby limiting just how much attorneys can charge for their services.
For example, your lawyer can accept no more than 33.3 percent if you recover less than $1 million in settlement negotiations. If, on the other hand, you secure less than $1 million any time after court proceedings commence, your legal team is entitled to up to 40 percent.
A sliding scale applies to any additional funds that a case yields. For example, attorneys may take up to 30 percent of their client’s recovery between $1 million and $2 million and up to 20 percent of any recovered funds above $2 million. Such caps apply regardless of whether the payout resulted from settlement negotiations or a trial verdict.
Regarding six-figure payouts, the cap is higher for cases that proceed to court because preparing a personal injury lawsuit for trial is a considerable amount of work. Fortunately, only a small percentage of claims actually end up before a judge or jury. The majority of them are settled, which means most claimants pay no more than about one-third of their recovery in attorney fees.
Discuss Your Case with a Personal Injury Attorney in Stuart
If you want to file a personal injury claim in Florida, turn to the resourceful team at Donaldson & Weston. We’ve helped more than 10,000 clients put their lives back together in the wake of devastating accidents.
By letting us handle the logistics of your case, you can focus on more important matters, like making a full recovery while taking care of your family. Call 772-266-5555 or use our Online Contact Form to set up a free case review with a personal injury lawyer in Stuart.
