Many events that happen in life require the services of an attorney. One of the most popular scenarios revolves around personal injury law. Victims of car accidents, slip and fall accidents, and other accidents require personal injury lawyers to recover compensation for their injuries and damages. Unfortunately, most people are reluctant to take legal action due to the misconception and fears around retaining an attorney. They believe that hiring a legal team is expensive, and in any case, they need these resources to cover their medical expenses and other related costs following an injury.
But what you don’t know is that you don’t need a lot of money to retain an attorney. You don’t need to part with any upfront fees when dealing with the lawyers at Lone Star Injury Attorneys. We understand the financial implications of a tragic car accident. For this reason, we dedicate our experience and resources towards having a successful outcome from your case. In turn, you get to channel your finances towards other important needs such as treatment for your injuries. Get in touch with us to discuss how payment for a Katy personal injury attorney works.
Pursuing legal action can be expensive. Even with enough resources, you may still incur further expenses by the time your case is settled. Normally, you should expect a wide array of legal expenses such as court filing fees, investigator’s fees, expert witnesses’ costs, and ultimately, your attorney’s payments. Other types of costs you should expect are:
Generally, pursuing any form of legal action in personal injury law is not a walk in the park. You need adequate finances to see your case through. If a determination is not made in your favor, appealing the decision also comes at additional costs.
Because most personal injury lawyers will only get paid if they win your case, they will first review your case to determine its viability. They will advise you if your case is unlikely to result in compensation. Doing so would be an act of bad faith from their end, yet your best interests should always be the priority. Before deciding to file a personal injury claim, let a qualified attorney go through the facts around your case to determine whether you qualify for compensation.
There are four major ways that payment for an injury lawyer works. They are:
As the most popular and widely accepted mode of payment for injury attorneys, the contingency fee policy allows them to offer legal representation at no upfront costs. They incur all expenses associated with your claim until the case is closed.
The biggest advantage of this arrangement is that you only pay your attorney ONLY when they recover monetary compensation for you. They normally retain an agreed percentage of your settlement as legal fees. If your case is unsuccessful, you don’t make any payments. Be sure to discuss what percentage they retain before reaching an agreement.
Most personal injury attorneys, including those at Lone Star Injury Attorneys use a sliding scale contingency fee. This mode of payment for Katy personal injury attorneys works like the earlier-discussed contingency fee arrangement. The only difference is that the percentage retained as legal fees is on a sliding scale, to allow for a lower fee if the case does not need litigation. For example, if your case settles with insurance companies before filing with the court, the percentage could be 35%, but if your case cannot be resolved without a court filing, this may increase to 40%.
Just like the contingency fee policy, the hourly version doesn’t require you to pay upfront fees. On the contrary, the only thing that changes is that your attorney gets paid based on the hours spent on your case. However, this arrangement is not as common, as attorneys are incentivized to bill more hours for the case than may be necessary.
In this plan, the attorney gets paid a reduced hourly rate, even if the plaintiff loses the case. If the case is successful, and you get compensated, the attorney gets a bonus payment. This could be an increased hourly rate or a percentage of the settlement amount.
Our Katy personal injury lawyers have a sliding scale contingency fee arrangement in place. We only get paid if we win damages. This allows you to have peace of mind knowing we are doing our best to get you the compensation you deserve. To schedule a free initial consultation, or if you have other questions, contact us right away.
