standard contingent fee
Most crash victims cannot afford the expense of having to hire a lawyer on a traditional hourly or flat-fee basis when they have been injured in a crash. For this reason, nearly every personal injury client signs what is known as a “contingent fee” agreement when hiring a personal injury lawyer. This means that you do not have to pay for the lawyer’s fee until and unless you receive a settlement or judgment. The lawyer’s fee is set as a percentage of that settlement or judgment.
The standard contingent fee percentage rate in the Denver area ranges from 33.33% to as much as 45%. These rates vary from attorney to attorney however the rate rarely varies depending on the actual amount of work an attorney has to do unless the case actually has to go to trial.
What Most Personal Injury Lawyers Won’t Tell You...
What most attorneys do not tell their clients is that a case that settles prior to the filing of a lawsuit consumes much less of an attorney’s time and resources than one which requires extensive litigation.
The reality is that a high percentage of crash cases in this state are settled without a lawsuit ever being filed. Furthermore, a large percentage of the cases that must go into litigation is settled prior to trial. Very few crash cases actually need to go to trial in Colorado.
Attorneys love the cases that can be settled prior to litigation because they see a much higher profit margin on those cases. We at Crawford Weiss feel that the client should be the party that primarily benefits when their case can be settled quickly before litigation; however, attorneys rarely offer the client any discount in the event that the attorney is able to quickly settle the case on the client’s behalf.
How Our “Client-Focused” Fee Agreement Makes Our Firm Unique
Our percentage fee is directly related to the amount of work that we have to put into a case. If we are able to settle your case before filing a lawsuit, we do not feel that we should charge you the same percentage fee as if we had to spend months litigating your case.
How Much Can I Save Under the “Client-Focused” Fee Agreement?
Under the Crawford Weiss “Client-Focused” Fee Agreement, your contingent fee could be as low as 25%, should we be successful in settling your case without filing a lawsuit. This can save a typical crash victim thousands of dollars in attorney fees on their case.
For example, if you have a $30,000.00 case, your fee could be as low as $7,500.00 under our “Client Focused” Fee Agreement as compared to $10,000.00 under a traditional fee agreement at 33.3%. This is a savings of $2,500.00. The larger your case, the larger your savings, and when you are rebuilding your life after a crash, every dollar counts.
Please note that not all cases can expect to be settled quickly without the need for litigation. If your case presents complex issues of liability or involves catastrophic damages, it is likely that the insurance company handling your claim will not want to settle for a fair value until the late stages of litigation, if at all. In these cases, you do not pay any more in attorney’s fees under the “Client-Focused” Fee Agreement that you would under a traditional law firm contingent fee agreement.