If you have an accident or suffer from an injury through the fault of another person or third party then you may well consider retaining a personal injury lawyer to help you make a claim for compensation. These legal professionals can help take legal action against the individual or third party entity that caused the accident or damage.
In the past the only way to retain a lawyer was to pay an upfront retainer or deposit and then to pay them for their time (usually billed by the hour) once your case was done. In personal injury cases nowadays, however, it is becoming more common for lawyers to work on a success only or contingent fee basis.
Here, you do not need to pay the lawyer that you retain to work on your case in the traditional way. If a lawyer accepts your case on this basis then they are only paid a fee if they win your claim and you are given some form of compensation. Then, they will be due a proportion of the settlement that you have been awarded. If you do not win, then you do not pay for their services.
So, which route will suit you best? To be honest the decision that you make here may well depend on your financial situation (i.e. whether you can afford the upfront costs of retaining a lawyer) and how you feel about the lawyer or firm in question.
The problem that many people have with a traditional payment route is the fact that they do not know how much their legal representation will ultimately cost them. In this kind of scenario, for example, you will usually have to pay an upfront retainer to the lawyer that you hire and then you’ll be charged for the hours that they work on your case even if you ultimately lose your claim.
Working on a success only basis, however, means that you do not have these upfront costs and you’ll only have to pay the lawyer if they win your case and you are awarded some money. So, you’ll have nothing to pay at all if you lose your case. In this scenario you only pay if your lawyer wins your case. This will usually involve a pre-contracted percentage of the sum of money which you awarded as compensation.
On the other hand some people have found that it can actually work out cheaper to retain a lawyer to work on a personal injury case in a traditional way. This is based on the fact that you only pay for the work that the lawyer does here rather than basing their fee on the compensation that you are awarded. So, the money that you are given is not eaten into by a success only fee that you have to pay to your lawyer.
Given that lawyers who handle cases such as these are technically giving their services for free unless they win, there does have to be some payback if/when they do win. So, for example, you could find that going down this route might cost you more than the traditional one as the percentage you pay of the money that you win could be relatively high. It could even cost more than regular lawyer fees.
It is best to make a choice here based on your own best interests. If you feel that you have a relatively straightforward case that will be easily won and can afford to retain a lawyer then this could be your cheapest option. If, however, you don’t have spare cash for a lawyer or have a case that could be complicated then you may be better off using a success only service.
