How To Get A Lawyer Who’ll Work On A Contingency Basis
For successful personal injury or workers’ compensation cases, clients pay their lawyers contingent fees. The lawyer accepts to get a fixed percentage of their settlement. Visit www.yrmlaw.com and see how they can help you on injury cases.
Unfortunately, most victims step back from seeking justice because they are financially down and can’t pay upfront fees.
If you have a personal injury case or a workers compensation claim and wondering how to get a lawyer who will work on a contingency basis, this guide will help you.
Understanding Contingent Fees?
The contingent fee is paid to a lawyer when there is a favorable outcome of a case. This is an arrangement that favors cases where money is being claimed. As stipulated earlier, such cases mostly include personal injury or workers’ compensation cases.
In any contingent fee agreement, a client and a lawyer have to agree on a fixed percentage of what the client recovers as settlement or judgment. If the client loses, then the lawyer doesn’t gets any money.
Nevertheless, whether a lawyer handles your case and wins or loses, you may be required to pay court filing fees, expert fees, or any other cost related to the case, such as disposition fees.
Getting the best Anchorage attorneys in any case matters, as they will fight to have your case settled way before the court proceeding commences.
This way, less legal costs are spent. Hence, you can negotiate a lower percentage of what to be deducted from your fees compared to when such a lawyer would represent you in court.
The fact is that not every lawyer accepts contingency cases. The reason is that they fear to risk doing a significant amount of work without pay. Thus, you may need to do some research to get a lawyer who’ll work on a contingency basis.
How Do I Get A Lawyer Who Will Work On Contingency Basis
Contingency fees arrangement works well for victims who need legal representation. If you have a legal case, then you may consider using the below ways to get a contingency lawyer:
- Contact the Alaska bar association: You will get the lawyer’s information, such as the name, address, area and years of practice.
- Ask family and friends: Getting advice from friends and family about a lawyer can be beneficial. Especially to those who have had similar cases and were legally represented by such lawyers.
- Use Google trends: For instance, you may search for ‘Alaska personal injury lawyer’ and you will get a list of lawyers to choose from. You may then call few lawyers depending on your strategy.
During a free consultation, any experienced lawyer can guess whether the case is complicated and the duration it may take. If such a lawyer thinks the settlement or verdict is significant enough, they will take your case on contingency. In addition, lawyers tend to take up cases where the defendant is clearly at fault. However, there are other cases where the lawyer will usually work out for details and provide evidence that will help you win regardless of your case circumstance.
Once you find a lawyer, make sure to ask questions to ensure such a lawyer handles your case in your best interests. Meaning, your lawyer has to clarify that you’re in charge, clarify to you how and when things should happen among another critical issues in your case. For such, you may ask:
- What is their fee estimate?
- Whether there is any likelihood of success?
- How they will handle your case?
With the above, it becomes easier to understand what to expect from your lawyer.
Working With Your Contingent Lawyer
By now, you know that your lawyer will collect their contingent fees once you win. Your lawyer will take up an agreed percentage from your recovery fund. The percentage is mostly 33% or 1/3 of your settlement. However, this is not a standard percentage; the amount your attorney receives mostly depends on many factors. Some include:
- Whether your case was complex: If your case poses some amount of risk, you may be forced to pay a higher percentage depending on what your lawyer may request. But you can always negotiate such a percentage.
- Who is to pay for litigation costs: There are lots of legal costs spent in any litigation. When your case is successful, you have to pay for the cost. However, the amount to receive will be affected depending on whether your lawyer will allocate the percentage of their contingent fee before or after paying such costs.
You don’t have to pay for anything unless your case wins. Nonetheless, you need to know how much percentage is calculated and how to go about the costs that will arise as the case progresses.
If you have a personal injury case or have incurred an injury within the scope of your employment, you can look for a lawyer who will work on a contingency basis.