After a car accident, you may have injuries and be unable to drive, work, or live the pain-free life you lived before the incident. Additionally, your car may be inoperable, or you might suffer anxiety about driving again. When another driver’s wrongful behavior causes you physical, emotional, mental, and financial damages, you should see a personal injury lawyer to help you get compensation for your past and future losses.
You might be concerned about affording an attorney while you’re unable to work and facing medical expenses. However, you shouldn’t have to bear the consequences of someone else’s negligence or intentional wrongdoing.
Schedule a free consultation with a personal injury law firm to learn how to recover your losses from the driver who caused the accident and your injuries.
How Much Will I Pay a Lawyer to Take My Personal Injury Case?
While some attorneys charge by the hour to handle a personal injury case, most do not. It is advisable to hire an attorney who will work with you on a contingency fee basis. Once you sign a contingency fee agreement with your lawyer, you can be sure that you will not pay attorney’s fees until your case is over, whether by settlement or jury trial.
Working with an accident attorney on a contingency fee basis allows you to pursue full compensation for your losses. While an insurance adjuster for the at-fault party may offer you a settlement, it’s likely insufficient to cover all your past and future expenses, lost wages, and medical care. An experienced personal injury attorney can negotiate a more favorable settlement on your behalf.
What is a Contingency Fee?
A contingency fee is an attorney’s payment that depends on the client securing a settlement or jury award. If the client doesn’t win the case, the attorney doesn’t receive any payment.
The contingency fee applies to the total amount of the award. A lawyer gets a certain percentage of the total award, typically between 20% and 33%.
In New Jersey, a contingency fee agreement must be in writing, clearly written in the agreement, the percentage and method of determining the fee, and signed by the client to be legally binding.
When Are Contingency Fee Agreements Used?
You see contingency fees most often in personal injury cases. This payment arrangement does not disqualify unjustly harmed people from seeking redress from the person or entity responsible for causing the harm for financial reasons.
Contingency fee agreements are common in personal injury cases but not in other legal areas. For example, contingency fees are illegal in divorce or criminal cases. In those cases, the client pays a retainer fee, like a deposit of funds against which an attorney charges hourly fees.
Personal injury cases include car accidents, slip and fall cases, dog bites, animal attacks, premises liability actions, wrongful death claims, medical malpractice claims, workplace injuries, defective product cases, and pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, and commercial truck accidents.
How Do Contingency Fees Work?
Once you agree on the percentage and sign a contingency fee agreement, you will wait until your case settles or a jury awards you damages. Your attorney will then deduct the fee from the settlement or jury verdict before you receive the proceeds.
A personal injury damage award or settlement might include reimbursement and future compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, disabilities, impairments, pain and suffering, loss of life enjoyment, emotional distress, and other damages.
What Are the Laws on Contingency Fees in New Jersey?
New Jersey Court Rule 1:21-77 restricts contingency fee percentages lawyers can collect. A lawyer may receive 33 and a third percent of the personal injury recovery up to the first $750,000.00. After that, an attorney collects 30 percent of the second $750,000.00, 25 percent of the third $750,000.00, and 20 percent of the fourth.
Does a Contingency Fee Include Costs?
An attorney may agree to pay all the costs of pursuing a personal injury claim, reimburse the out-of-pocket costs from any settlement or jury verdict, or have the client pay for some or all of the expenses.
Fees and costs are the expenses associated with prosecuting a personal injury claim. These can include court filing fees, expert witness fees, deposition fees, court reporter fees, copying costs for medical records and police reports, office supplies, postage costs, investigation costs, process server fees, and trial preparation costs.
The contingency fee agreement should clarify who pays the costs and when.
Get a Free Case Review from a Freehold, New Jersey, Personal Injury Law Firm
If you have questions about contingency fees or filing a personal personal injury claim, discuss your concerns and questions with a Monmouth County personal injury attorney firm that handles accident and injury cases like yours.
The attorneys at Noonan & McMahon, LLC, understand that you deserve total compensation for losses you sustained because of another’s negligence in Freehold, New Jersey. Our team cares about listening to you and helping you redress the wrongs of someone else’s carelessness. We will fight to help you recover financially, physically, and emotionally.
Contact our law offices today at (732) 303 7857 for a free initial consultation.