What Is A Contingency Fee Agreement?

A majority of personal injury lawyers ask their clients to sign a contingency fee agreement. That signed agreement serves as a special form of billing.

Specifics on contingency fee agreements

When a client signs such a document, the client’s attorney has been promised a given percentage of the damages awarded to that same client. Lawyers that get a percentage of their clients’ reward do not charge an hourly fee. Still, the client remains responsible for reimbursing the lawyer, after that member of the legal profession has covered the costs created by a variety of expenses.

What expenses does a personal injury lawyer cover?

While working on a client’s case, the hired lawyer must pay any court filing fees. Even before the case goes to court, the process of obtaining documents for the discovery process can lead to creation of added costs. It may cost money to copy a document, or to retrieve a different set of papers. Then, when a trial has been scheduled, the lawyer may need to pay one or more expert witnesses.

How client benefits by signing a contingency fee agreement?

Some lawyers charge an up-front fee, whenever they agree to take a case. Personal Injury Lawyer in Waterloo do not follow that practice. Each of them charges a contingency fee. A lawyer’s readiness to put plenty of effort into a given case increases, when that member of the legal profession has been promised a percentage of the client’s awarded compensation.

If a client’s attorney fails to provide that client with the desired award, the losing client does not have to pay any penalty. The defendant has no right to demand money from the plaintiff, if the lost case has become a lawsuit. In fact, the case might be settled at any time, before a lawsuit has been filed, or before a trial comes to an end.

What drawbacks have been linked to the paying of contingency fees?

While it is true that a personal injury attorney might work long and hard on a case, before receiving the promised fee, the reverse is also true. In other words, a hired lawyer might need to spend only a short amount of time on a given case, before receiving the promise percentage of the client’s awarded compensation.

Any personal injury lawyer has a right to refuse a case. That refusal, if made, usually comes at the end of a consultation. By then the consulted lawyers can tell whether or not the potential client has a strong case. Few personal injury lawyers welcome the opportunity to assist someone that has a weak case. Claimants can present their potential case to any number of lawyers, but pursuing that possibility does take time.