What is a Contingency Fee Agreement?

Most Common Way to Pay for a Greenville Personal Injury Lawyer to Fight Back: Understanding What a Contingency Fee Agreement is and How You Can Use It

After a motor vehicle accident, slip and fall, dog bite, or another serious or catastrophic personal injury accident, you may be entitled to compensation against a defendant or group of defendants responsible for your accident and injuries. This often translates into obtaining the help of a personal injury lawyer. However, most people are opposed to lawyers (sometimes we are too), largely because they believe lawyers are too expensive and cost-prohibitive. On top of this, some law firms throw around fee arrangements that are outright confusing and even frightening. Many people come to our Greenville personal injury lawyer asking what a contingency fee agreement is and whether they can even afford legal representation in the first place.

And our answer is always YES. That’s because, here at The Hammack Law Firm, we understand that individuals injured in an accident do not need to be victimized twice. Unlike other personal injury law firms, you won’t pay us a “review fee” or upfront legal expenses to prosecute your case. Rather, we offer free case evaluations, pay your case’s upfront costs and disbursements, and only get our legal fees paid after you get paid. That means there is a no-win, no-fee guarantee, which is part of a contingency fee agreement. To learn more about how our Greenville personal injury lawyer can help you and your family, call us today.

How do Lawyers Get Paid in South Carolina?

There are three general ways that lawyers get paid in South Carolina. Each way has distinct advantages and disadvantages for the client and the lawyer or law firm. As a client, it is important to be aware of the three most common ways to protect your rights while also preserving your bank account.

Flat Fee Arrangements

The first and most basic is a flat fee, which is a one-set price for a service such as a Last Will preparation or an uncontested divorce. There are certain restrictions on when a lawyer can use a flat fee, so it isn’t common in a personal injury case.

In fact, if you come across a personal injury lawyer offering a flat fee arrangement, just hit the back button on the website and keep looking. Flat fees are not appropriate in personal injury matters, with the few exceptions of setting up a wrongful death estate or handling an infant compromise. But then again, even those services are usually encompassed in other more cost-effective and advantageous agreements for clients.

Hourly Rate Fees

The second is an hourly rate fee, which is when the lawyer charges a certain amount of money per hour for a case that is being worked on. That includes everything from the lawyer doing research, drafting or arguing in court, to even more basic and non-legal tasks such as driving to the courthouse, answering a call with the clerk’s office, or even just waiting around for the case to be called at the courthouse.

Hourly rates are common in personal injury cases but for the defense side representing the defendant’s insurance company. Thus, if you are an individual injured in an accident and want to commence a lawsuit against the defendant (making you the plaintiff), any personal injury lawyer asking you to pay an hourly rate is a true warning sign to run away. It could mean that they 1) don’t believe strongly in your case, 2) aren’t experienced enough, or 3) are not doing well enough to take on the risk of a contingency fee agreement.

Contingency Fee Agreements

The third and holy grail for a personal injury victim is the contingency fee agreement. Although many people are weary and ask what a contingency fee agreement is with some skepticism, it is ideal for a victim and his or her family.

That’s because this type of fee arrangement costs nothing out of pocket for a victim. Rather, the victim agrees to pay the lawyer a percentage of the total recovery that is made. That percentage depends on whether the case is able to settle pre-commencement or whether the case proceeds to trial. The percentage is also based on the type of case (i.e., car accident versus medical malpractice). As a result, a victim with a contingency fee agreement does not pay anything upfront, does not pay out-of-pocket, and does not owe anything if a lawsuit is unsuccessful.

This type of fee arrangement is very advantageous to a personal injury victim because it places all the financial risk on the bodily injury law firm. That’s because the law firm will essentially work for free until a recovery is made, rather than in a flat fee or an hourly rate where the client always pays – no matter the outcome.

Costs of Litigation

In addition to the legal fees, there are also litigation expenses that a client must usually pay. These fees are related to filing fees, costs of experts, postage, research fees, deposition costs, and other disbursements. However, in a contingency fee agreement, the costs of litigation are again paid upfront by the lawyer and are only reimbursed to the law firm after there is a recovery. That means if there is no recovery, there is no obligation to reimburse the law firm for the costs and disbursements of litigation.

There are some instances where a client can agree to pay these costs and disbursements upfront, but that is not common and often not feasible for most injury victims.

Still Not Sure What is a Contingency Fee Agreement? Call Our Greenville Personal Injury Lawyer to Learn How Affordable This Type of Agreement is for Victims and Their Families in South Carolina

If you or a loved one were seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident, premises liability case, medical malpractice mistake, or any other type of dog bite, alien invasion, or another type of injury-causing accident, call The Hammack Law Firm to schedule a FREE consultation with our experienced Greenville personal injury lawyer in South Carolina.

We can answer your question about what a contingency fee agreement is and help advise you and your family of your options under the law. Our bodily injury law firm offers free consultations and case evaluations, and we pay the upfront costs and disbursements of litigation, which are only reimbursed after we recover compensation for you. The same is true of our contingency fee agreement, which only results in the payment of our legal fees after we recover compensation for you and your family.

To learn more, contact us today by dialing (864) 428-7591 or by sending us a message through our website here.