People often delay and never get an attorney because of the cost of getting an attorney. They worry, how much is it going to cost, I can’t afford to get an attorney. We get asked this a lot in all the types of cases that we handle. In certain cases, require no money up front.
For example, in an injury case, a personal injury, a case involving injury or death, most of the time the attorneys who handle these cases, in the state of Florida, handle those on what’s called a contingency fee. You may see lawyers advertising free, free, free for your injury case. It’s not really free. That’s actually a mischaracterization. What it is, is you don’t have to reach in your pocket and pull-out money to hire the lawyer at this time. The lawyer will wait to get paid until the end of the case, but they will get paid if they make a recovery and a percentage of the recovery they make. That is standard across the state of Florida for all attorneys who are handling personal injury and wrongful death cases to handle the cases on what’s called a contingency fee. To call it free is a misrepresentation. It is, you don’t have to pay if we don’t recover anything from you and you don’t have to pay right now, we’ll wait to get paid until we make the recovery and then we’ll get paid from that recovery.
So, the short answer to the question how much does it cost? It costs nothing if there is no requirement. If there is a requirement, the attorney will get paid at the end of the case once the collection has been made and they’ll get paid from that collection. Typically, a standard percentage of the recovery. The amount is controlled and governed. There are limits that are placed by the Florida Bar’s ethical limits. Our research has shown that consistently across the board, across the state of Florida, injury attorneys charged the same allowed percentage.
So really, when you’re comparing personal injury attorneys, if you’re factoring in, what’s the amount of the fee, you can expect that fee percentage will be the same across the board. What you want to look for is what’s the amount this attorney can recover for me. The fee will be based on that, but your ultimate net to you will be more. Short answer, it doesn’t really cost you until the end of the case and it’s a percentage in your injury case.