Top 3 Reasons To Consider Using A Reduced Attorney Fee Program For A Maryland Personal Injury Case
The principal advantage in the reduced fee program may be no different than the greatest advantage in all contingent fee arrangements. It may well be the absolute lack of risk to the injured person. Under a contingent fee arrangement, for the client or injury victim, there’s no exposure or risk of non-recovery. In other words, the personal injury attorney is working for free unless and until there is a recovery.
It is only when the injured person is compensated for their injury, in the form of money damages or settlement funds, that the client owns a portion of that recovery to the attorney as his or her fee.
If there is no recovery, then there are no attorney’s fees due or owing. This notion is sometimes expressed as a “no costs unless we win” type of arrangement. Moreover, in some instances, the attorney will advance the costs of the litigation. Sometimes these can be quite substantial. For example, the retention of an expert witness to give needed opinion testimony is often prohibitively expensive. If the attorney has agreed to advance costs on a contingent basis, it is only where there is an award of compensation for the injury victim that they reimburse the attorney for those advanced costs. If there is no financial recovery the injured person, they owe nothing. This arrangement allows the injury victim to to devote available resources to the needed payment of medical expenses or other expenses associated with their recovery and recuperation.
This is really the second advantage of using a contingency fee contract. This bargain permits the injured person from having to pay a substantial retainer up front, or hourly fees contemporaneously, in order to retain needed personal injury counsel. Indeed, those available financial resources are likely needed for other pressing matters in the wake of a debilitating or disabling personal injury.
While you should always explore hourly payment, or flat fee payment options with the personal injury attorney of your choosing, I Attorney Eric T. Kirk have found over the years that the contingency fee bargain is often ideally suited to the personal injury victim and their immediate and pressing needs. Perhaps the biggest single reason why the reduced attorney fee contingent bargain makes sense is the financial savings involved. Under a common attorney fee arrangement typically used in this community, a lawyer would charge 40% of any recovery in a case in which a lawsuit has been filed. Under my reduced attorney fee program that percentage is limited to 35%. So if the recovery is only $1ooo, then savings is $50. But if the case is more significant with a $10,000 recovery an extra $500 goes directly to the Injury victim. In a serious case a $100,000 recovery results in a $5,000 savings for the victim.
