How much does a personal injury lawyer cost?

For most personal injury cases, hiring a lawyer costs you nothing up front. We work on a contingency basis, which means our fee comes out of what we recover for you, not out of your pocket while the case is ongoing. If there is no recovery, there is no attorney fee.

What "contingency" means in practice

• No hourly billing. You are not charged for phone calls, emails, or time spent on your file.
• No retainer. You do not pay a deposit to get started.
• A set percentage, agreed in writing. Our fee is a defined share of what we recover, and that number is in your agreement before any work begins.
• No win, no fee. If we do not recover money for you, you do not owe an attorney fee.

Fees and costs are not the same thing

This is the part that trips people up, so it is worth being clear. Separate from the fee, every case has costs:

• Court filing fees
• Medical and police records
• Expert reviews and reports

We advance these costs as the case moves and explain them to you in writing up front, including the small ones that some firms quietly add at the end. You should never be surprised by a line item.

Why contingency is fair to you

Because we only get paid if you do, our incentive is the same as yours: to maximize your recovery, not to bill hours. It also means access. You do not need money in the bank to hold a careless party accountable, which is the entire point of the contingency model.

What to confirm before you sign

A trustworthy firm will happily put the following in writing:

1. The exact fee percentage.
2. Whether that percentage changes if the case goes to litigation.
3. How case costs are handled, and what happens to them if there is no recovery.

The bottom line

You should never have to guess what representation will cost. Before you sign anything, we walk you through the fee and the likely costs in plain numbers, so you know exactly how any recovery would be divided. The first conversation is always free.