I Want To Hire A Personal Injury Attorney. What Are The Fees? How Does It Work?

Bail Bond Cowboys wants the public to have answers to the myriad of questions that surround the civil legal system and your legal rights. We bring those answers to you in the form of video interviews by Attorneys.Media of legal experts in your area and across the country.

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

“Most people, of course right away, are going to know what the situation is…they’re going to be going to their doctor. So now they decide, ‘I want to hire an attorney because I feel I am not getting what I should be getting’, in terms of help, assistance, roadblocks coming up. So, they say ‘I want to hire an attorney’. And the question is ‘I can’t afford to pay you, so…what is your fee’? How does that work?”

Andrew Dósa – Personal Injury Attorney – Alameda County, CA

“I tell them they can afford to pay me. It’s just not cash, and it’s not based on an hourly basis. The contingency fee agreement is an agreement that is built on the premise that I will get a result for my client in the future. And at that point, we’ll then look at the total recovery…which is what the client will agree to. I don’t decide for the client, the client decides. Whatever that number is, my fee would be a third of that, if we haven’t gone into litigation, and up to the point of a mediation or an arbitration.

So, until that point, even if its two years into the future, and I’ve been essentially carrying the case as well as potentially advancing the costs of the case, my fee will be paid at the point where we get that result at the end. So, my fee, again, is a third, or forty percent after a mediation or arbitration. It’s not uncommon for some attorneys to charge fifty percent if they go to a mediation or go to trial. So, it’s usually a third, forty percent, and forty-five, or fifty percent, depending upon what the contract says. What the attorney prefers to do.”