Contingency Fee

Contingency Fee

Suppose you suffer an accidental injury that was somebody else’s fault. You want to file a claim, but you fear that you can’t afford to hire a personal injury lawyer to help you press it. Don’t worry—the contingency fee system, among its many advantages, grants almost anyone access to the legal system.

How Lawyers Bill Their Clients

A lawyer might bill their clients in several different ways, including billable hours, a flat fee, a contingency fee, or a hybrid arrangement. See below for additional details.

Billable Hours

The billable hour system is probably the most well-known way lawyers bill their clients. These lawyers bill their clients hundreds of dollars per hour. In fact, even a first-year lawyer straight out of law school will bill their clients well over $100 per hour.

Personal injury lawyers, however, seldom use it. If your personal injury lawyer proposes representing you on a pure billable hour system, you can be almost sure that they anticipate losing.

Flat Fee

Some lawyers work on a flat fee system, which means they tell you the total price in advance. This works best when the lawyer knows roughly how much time they will need to complete a certain task. A lawyer might bill $2,500, for example, to draft a last will and testament or an immigration application.

Chris O’Brien

Chris O’Brien is a nationally recognized personal injury attorney with over 30 years of experience fighting for accident victims in Western New York. A founding partner at O’Brien & Ford, he has helped recover millions for clients and built a reputation as a top trial lawyer and educator. Chris is a Diplomate of the National College of Advocacy, a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and was named one of Western New York’s Top Ten Lawyers by Buffalo Business First. He lives in Amherst with his family and their Bernedoodle, Moose.

Years of experience: 33 years
Practice areas: Personal Injury Law, Car Accidents
Location: Buffalo, New York

Contingency Fee

Under the contingency fee arrangement favored by almost all personal injury lawyers, the lawyer charges you a percentage of whatever amount they recover for you. This system only works when a victory generates income, from which the lawyer can deduct their fee. A lawyer won’t offer a contingency fee for criminal defense, for example, because an acquittal does not generate income from which to calculate or pay the fee.

Typically, a contingency fee for handling a personal injury claim ranges from 30% to 40% of your recovery. It doesn’t matter whether your recovery comes from a jury verdict or a private settlement. If they lose the case and your compensation is zero, what is 30% of zero? It’s still zero, so you pay nothing in legal fees unless you win.

The contingency fee system offers at least two major advantages. First, you can hire a lawyer without a penny in your pocket as long as you have a strong claim. Second, it aligns the lawyer’s interests with yours.

The more money you make, the more money your lawyer makes. Compare that with your relationship with an insurance company—the more money you make, the less money the insurance company makes.

Hybrid Arrangements

Lawyers sometimes offer hybrid arrangements—an hourly rate for preliminary work and a flat fee for specific tasks, for example, or a lower contingency fee combined with billable hours for certain tasks.

Factors That Influence The Amount of a Contingency Fee

The following factors influence the amount of the contingency fee that your lawyer will be willing to accept:

• The strength of your claim. Since your lawyer doesn’t get paid unless they win, without a strong claim, the lawyer probably won’t take your case at all. If they do take your case on a contingency fee arrangement, you can be almost certain they believe they can win.
• If the lawyer expects your case to go to trial. A personal injury lawyer might charge you more if the case goes to trial.
• The size of your likely recovery. The higher your total expected recovery, the lower the contingency fee percentage your lawyer will be likely to work for. Your lawyer might, for example, charge you 30% of any amount up to a million dollars plus 15% for any amount over a million dollars.
• Limits imposed by New York state law (see below)

Other factors might factor into the decision as well.

Legal Limits on the Amount of a Contingency Fee

The state of New York suggests the following contingency fee amounts for personal injury and wrongful death claims:

• 50 percent on the first $1,000 of the sum recovered
• 40 percent on the next $2,000 of the sum recovered
• 35 percent on the next $22,000 of the sum recovered
• 25 percent on any amount over $25,000 of the sum recovered

Under New York law, the contingency fee percentage may exceed 33 ⅓ percent under no circumstances.

Case Expenses

Case expenses are the wild card in the deck. Under certain circumstances, the lawyer might handle case expenses the same way they handle legal fees. That means the lawyer pays all case expenses out of their own pocket. They will ‘eat the loss’ if they lose the case and deduct it from your compensation if they win.

In other circumstances, they might expect you to pay these expenses, win or lose. Below are some examples of case expenses:

• Expert witness fees
• Filing fees
• Medical records
• Deposition costs
• Investigation costs
• Travel expenses
• Courier and postage expenses
• Fees for accessing legal databases
• Court reporter fees
• Trial exhibits.

These are just a few examples. Other case expenses might also apply, depending on your case’s facts.

Talk to a Personal Injury Lawyer ASAP

Choose your lawyer with care, because it could be the most important decision you make in your entire case. While no ethical lawyer will offer you a guaranteed recovery, an effective personal injury lawyer might be able to double, triple, or even quadruple your recovery on a contingency fee. Set up a free consultation with a Buffalo personal injury lawyer at O’Brien & Ford at your earliest convenience.

Contact The Buffalo Personal Injury Lawyers At O’Brien & Ford PC For Help Today

For more information, please contact the Buffalo personal injury lawyers at O’Brien & Ford PC to schedule a free consultation with an accident lawyer. We have a convenient office location in Buffalo, NY.

We proudly serve all throughout Erie County and the state of New York.

O’Brien & Ford Buffalo Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers
4549 Main St, Suite 201
Buffalo, New York, 14226
(716) 222-2222