What Is A Contingent Fee Lawsuit and Is It Worth Your While?

Okay - I've got a question for you. Aside from the occasional altruistic attorney that you might run across once every a millennium or so, why do attorney's practice law? No, this is not a trick question.

Ready for the the answer?

It's "too make money". Lots and lots of money.

So, given this really obvious answer, if you think that you have a legitimate case - let's say you were in an automobile accident caused by another driver, or maybe you took some prescribed - or even over the counter medication - and had very adverse effects, then you might consider hiring an attorney. But then you might very well think that you're going to have to hock the family jewels in order to come up with the fee a personal injury law firm will ask for if you want them to represent you.

Wrong! Well, maybe you should see an attorney. However, it might not even cost you a penny.

Although most of the jurisdictions in the U S prohibit prevent attorneys involved in criminal or family law cases to offer a contingent fee, it is pretty much the norm in personal injury cases and some other types of litigation.

If you an attorney agrees to represent based you on a contingent fee structure (a no win no fee agreement in the UK), it means that unless they win the case they won't be paid a nickel. And if they win then the contingent fee would usually be based on a percentage of your net recovery.

In the United States although the amount a lawyer can charge on a contingency basis cannot be greater than 100%, most attorneys charge anywhere from 25% to 50% of the settlement.

There are pros and cons to this system. Put yourself in your attorney's place. Would you enter such an agreement unless you really believed you would win the case?

Of course you wouldn't. So don't expect them to either. Because of the risk of not making any money is involved, very few lawyers will represent a client on a contingency basis unless they believe that there is a very high probability that they will win the case.

So, although there are no guarantees, if a law firm agrees to represent you in a personal injury case you can be rather optimistic about your possibilities. And, if they are not successful you won't be charged any fee at all.

And because they won't receive any money if they don't win the case for you, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are really motivated to do their best for you.

On the downside, attorneys occasionally will try to cherry pick their cases and only go ahead with litigation if the claim is extremely strong and is likely to succeed. Because lawyers assume any financial risk of litigation and because a case's success this isn't always obvious without significant investigation, some cases that could be won are turned away.

However, one thing's for sure. If you think you have a potential personal injury lawsuit and you don't contact a personal injury law firm to see if they will represent you on a contingency basis, then it's 100% guaranteed that they won't.