How Do Legal Fees Work in Personal Injury Cases?

If you’ve been seriously injured in an accident in Pennsylvania, your costs could be adding up quickly. They could also continue adding up for a very long time. As a result, it is critical to make sure you seek any financial compensation to which you are legally entitled. Hiring an experienced Allentown personal injury lawyer is the first step in this process.

But, how much more is this going to cost you?

While many accident victims have concerns about the costs of hiring a personal injury lawyer, it does not cost you anything out-of-pocket to hire a lawyer in this scenario. Not only that, but you also may be able to recover significantly more financial compensation with an experienced lawyer on your side.

Personal Injury Lawyers Represent Accident Victims on a Contingency-Fee Basis

Most personal injury lawyers (including ours) represent accident victims on a contingency-fee basis. With contingency-fee representation, your obligation to pay legal fees depends on (or is “contingent” upon) whether your case is successful. If your case is not successful for any reason, you will not have to pay anything for your legal representation.

Here are some more key aspects of contingency-fee representation in personal injury cases:

1. A Free, No-Obligation Initial Consultation

Your initial consultation with an Allentown personal injury lawyer at our law firm is completely free. It is also completely without obligation. When you contact us about your case, we will schedule a time for you to speak with one of our personal injury lawyers one-on-one so that you can make an informed decision about whether you want to keep moving forward.

If you decide that you want to keep moving forward, we will enter into an engagement agreement with you—and then our legal team will get to work on your personal injury case right away. If you decide that you don’t want to move forward for any reason, you will still owe us nothing.

2. No Retainer Fees

Entering into an engagement agreement does not involve paying a retainer fee. While our lawyers (and other lawyers) charge retainer fees for certain types of cases, we do not charge retainer fees in personal injury cases. You truly will not pay anything for our legal services unless we win your case (i.e., we help you secure a settlement or a verdict in court).

3. No Other Upfront Costs

While there are costs involved in pursuing a personal injury case (i.e., filing fees and expert witness fees), you do not have to pay these costs up front when you engage our law firm to represent you. We will cover the costs of pursuing your case while it is pending, and we will only recoup these costs if we help you secure a settlement or verdict.

4. No Monthly Legal Bills

With contingency-fee representation, you also don’t have to pay monthly legal bills. We do not charge for billable hours in personal injury cases. Instead, we do everything we can to help our clients recover the financial compensation they deserve, and if our efforts are successful, we receive a percentage of the financial compensation we help our clients recover.

5. Percentage-Based Legal Fees (if Your Case is Successful)

As we just mentioned, if your personal injury case is successful, we will receive a percentage of the financial compensation we help you recover. We will discuss this percentage with you during your free initial consultation, and this percentage will be clearly stated in your engagement agreement. Regardless of how much you recover (if your case is successful), you will never have to pay more than this percentage for our legal representation.

Your Lawyer Can Help You Seek Compensation You Would Struggle to Seek on Your Own

Why would you consider hiring a lawyer (and potentially paying contingency fees) when you have the option of handling your personal injury claim yourself? While there are several important reasons to hire a personal injury lawyer after a serious accident, one of the main ways an experienced lawyer will be able to help you is by seeking compensation that you would struggle to seek on your own. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Compensation for Your Future Medical Bills and Other Necessary Expenses – Serious accident-related injuries can lead to significant long-term costs. Your personal injury lawyer can help ensure that you are seeking just compensation for all of the medical bills and other expenses you are likely to incur in the future.
• Compensation for Your Future Lost Earnings – Along with seeking just compensation for your future out-of-pocket expenses, your personal injury lawyer can also seek just compensation for your future lost earnings. This is a complex process that involves documenting both the long-term disabling effects of your injuries and your anticipated future income.
• Compensation for Your Permanent Scarring or Disfigurement – In Pennsylvania, personal injury claimants can seek compensation for various non-financial losses as well. For example, if you have been permanently scarred or disfigured as a result of your accident, your lawyer will be able to determine (and document) what constitutes just compensation for these life-altering consequences.
• Compensation for Your Pain and Suffering – Many serious accident victims will experience chronic pain and other long-term physical and psychological effects as well. These are also non-financial losses for which an experienced personal injury lawyer can help you seek just compensation.
• Compensation for Your Other Present and Future Non–Financial Losses – If you have any other present or future losses you are entitled to recover, you need to include these in your personal injury claim—and you need to be able to prove how much you deserve for these losses as well. This requires an in-depth understanding of your legal rights under Pennsylvania law.

Schedule a Free, No-Obligation Consultation with an Allentown Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you would like to know more about hiring a personal injury lawyer after a serious accident in Pennsylvania, we strongly encourage you to get in touch. To schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with an Allentown personal injury lawyer at Drake, Hileman & Davis, PC, please call 888-777-7098 or contact us online today.