How Are Lawyers Paid?

I get a lot of questions about how lawyers are paid. Lawyers are paid in three different ways for the most part: One is a flat fee, two is an hourly rate, and three is a contingency fee.

Most the time in personal injury cases a lawyer will charge a contingency fee and there’s usually industry norms. Sometimes there’s actually guided by statue, but for the most part you may have heard that a lawyer takes a third of the settlement.

So, typically a lawyer will take a third pre-lawsuit and then once the suit is actually filed they’ll take something in the 40% range. That’s something that can be negotiated or discussed on a case by case basis, but typically on a personal injury cases you’re talking about a percentage so you don’t have to actually put any money down and a lot of times you’re attorneys or what we’ll do is we’ll actually front money for services and treatments that you need so that you’re taken care of completely so that you’re taken care of completely during this traumatic time in your life.