Most OKC personal injury lawyers work on a contingency basis. This means there is no upfront cost for their services and clients pay nothing if their case isn’t successful. If the case is won, the attorney fee would come out of the victim’s settlement check. This fee would usually be around 33% of the settlement.
Lawyers can charge more or less depending on their policies. For instance, Ylla|Gosney Attorneys at Law of Oklahoma City will adjust their fee to make sure victims keep enough to rebuild their lives. It’s critical that you know exactly how your attorney gets paid and how much. Don’t hire any lawyer until you are clear on what you’ll pay.
How Does a Contingency Fee Work in a Personal Injury Case?
To make sure all victims can afford powerful legal representation, personal injury lawyers often work under a “contingency agreement.” It means the victim wouldn’t have to pay anything for a lawyer’s help unless the case was won. Even then, the victim wouldn’t have to dig into savings to pay the attorney’s fee. The fee would come out of the settlement money the victim was awarded.
Under a contingency agreement, the lawyer fronts all of the investigative costs and doesn’t ask for any upfront money for legal fees. If the case is lost, the client doesn’t have to pay anything, and the attorney must absorb the expenses. This leaves the attorney vulnerable to financial harm because cases can be lost for many reasons, sometimes through no fault of the lawyer.
If a case is successful, the attorney would get around a third of the settlement amount. The fee is used to offset the risk lawyers take when accepting a personal injury case on a contingency basis.
In reality, lawyers shouldn’t take on your case unless they are confident they can win you much more than you could secure by handling your case yourself. The idea is that your lawyer’s valuable experience in dealing with insurance companies would lead to a bigger payout that would cover the attorney’s fee and provide you with much more to pay for your recovery.
Do I Need a Lawyer for my Oklahoma City Personal Injury Case?
After accidents like getting in a car collision or taking a fall at your apartment complex, assess your injuries. If these accidents only result in some minor bruising and soreness, you may not need a lawyer for your case. But if you suffer a more serious injury, like a bone fracture or a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and someone else, like a careless driver or a property owner is responsible, you may need a lawyer. Turning your case over to a skilled attorney gives you a better chance of securing the money you need to fully recover.
Insurance companies have trained their adjusters to poke holes in your case. They can point the finger of blame at you unfairly. They might downplay how long your injuries will take to heal. These are tactics to try to get you to accept zero in compensation for your injury, or far less than you need to pay all of your medical bills. You could need a lawyer’s protection against this type of unfair behavior.
