Can I Afford A Personal Injury Lawyer?

Whether you can afford a personal injury lawyer, and how much a lawyer can cost, are both stressful questions. You have probably heard the term “retainer” as applied to a lawyer, or an hourly rate. A retainer is money deposited in the lawyer’s client trust account. Then, the lawyer “bills against” this up-front amount by charging you for every hour that the lawyer works paid out of the retainer. So, if your retainer is $5,000, and your lawyer bills $100 an hour, there will be no money left in your trust account if the lawyer spends 50 hours working on the case. 

But personal injury lawyers usually work on what is called a contingency basis. This means they are paid with a percentage of the award. This also means that you do not have to put down a retainer or flat fee for a personal injury case like you do for a divorce or criminal case. A personal injury lawyer also generally won’t bill you hourly, so all the work that goes in is paid out of that percentage. Not only does this mean that you won’t get unexpected bills when the lawyer works beyond what is in your trust account, it also means that you will know how much money you will receive from the settlement. 

Even so, big personal injury firms that you see on TV may be pretty expensive in the long run. If you go to a big firm like the ones you see advertised on a bus bench or billboard, they will probably ask you to pay 35-40% depending on how far in litigation you get. As you can see, that means almost half of your damages will go straight into a lawyer’s pocket and then into his advertising budget. 

At Prager Law, our goal is not to see our faces on TV but to make you whole. That’s why our fee is never going to be that high throughout the entire process. If you have been hurt by another person’s carelessness or negligence, call us today for a free consultation to discuss your case.