You’re driving home from work in 5 o’clock traffic. The roads are jam-packed, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Nothing you can’t handle until the sickening sound of a loud crunch fills your ears.
Someone ran the red light and slammed right into your passenger side door. Luckily, you weren’t giving anyone a lift home from the office today. You’ve got a few scratches and bruises, but that’s the extent of your injuries.
Now you have to go through the hassle of hiring a car accident lawyer. If you don’t, you won’t get the compensation you need to pay for a new vehicle. Check out this guide to learn how much the legal fees will cost you.
Contingency
There are plenty of advantages to this type of plan. For one, if you’re poor, you won’t have to worry about selling your grandma’s prized heirlooms to pay back the lawyer. For two, it means that whatever lawyer you hire will work in your interests.
They want you to win because they’ve got to pay their bills. This means that you’ll be working as a team with your lawyer for the entire case. It makes for a happy relationship and a less stressed out you.
Contingency Percentages
So, we said that you would have to give a small portion of your car accident settlement to your attorney. How much are we talking about? The answer can vary from law firm to law firm.
You can count on giving them about 33%. It can easily go up to 40% depending on a few extra factors. For example, if you’re charged any court fees or need to obtain police and medical records, that will cost money.
Your lawyer can handle these little annoyances for you, but they’ll take it out of your compensation settlement. It’s not a bad arrangement, honestly.
Typical Car Accident Lawyer Fees
If you’re panicking over 33%, that’s understandable until you see the actual numbers. Let’s say that you get about 10,000 dollars that you can spend on getting a new vehicle and paying for your medical bills. That’s a little low, but it’s not an unheard-of scenario.
If you owe your lawyer 33% of that, you still get to keep $6,700 of your earnings. That’s plenty to either get your vehicle fixed, or put a down payment on a new one.
Hourly Payments
Contacting a car accident lawyer and hiring them sometimes involves hourly fees. It depends on what kind of attorney you go through. The ones that work with their clients are much more likely to offer up a contingency payment plan.
The defense car accident attorneys are the ones who typically charge by the hour. You’ll owe them a set amount of money rather they win your case or not.
How much you pay the attorney depends on the area where they’re located and how many years they’ve been in service. Shoot for at most $500 an hour.
Flat Fee
Lawyers with flat fee payment options charge the client a set lump sum to handle their car accident case. We’ll tell you that this payment option is pretty rare.
The only time this method is used is when you hire an attorney for a certain task. They may charge you a flat fee for preparing and sending off certain paperwork, for example.
Is hiring a Car Accident Attorney Even Worth it?
Even if the lawyer offers a contingency fee payment arrangement, the expenses are pretty high. Those who would like to keep all the compensation to themselves may laugh at the idea of paying a lawyer to help them.
We’re here to tell you not to rule out the idea because of the price. It’s not that easy to represent yourself in a court of law. The insurance company will try to fight you.
It’s a lot of Paperwork
Making a car accident claim involves a ton of paperwork. You’ve got to make sure certain documents are signed a certain way and turn them in at the right time.
All it takes is one small mistake to get your entire case thrown into the garbage. Hiring the right lawyer can help make this process a little less confusing.
They’ll sit down with you to fill out the paperwork and explain it to you as you go along. They also won’t let you miss any important due dates.
They Can Battle the Insurance Company
Insurance companies don’t typically play fair in a court of law. They have lawyers on their side who will do all they can to make sure things turn up in their favor.
As you can imagine, not having an experienced attorney of your own will hurt your chances of getting compensation. You need someone who can play hardball back at them.
They Know How Much Compensation You Deserve
After a bad car accident, you end up with more than a medical bill a mile long and a broken vehicle. Chances are, you’re going to have to be out of work for a long time while you’re recovering.
You may be owed something a little extra if the accident happened because the other driver was negligent. There’s a lot to consider that you might miss. Your lawyer will know exactly how much you should get.
Get Your Legal Fees Squared Away
When you’re hurt in a crash, you must get into contact with a car accident lawyer as soon as you can. Getting all the fees squared away can cost quite a bit of money. That is unless the lawyer offers a contingency plan.
You won’t have to pay anything out of pocket if the attorney doesn’t win your case. So, get on the phone and talk with someone today. It’s better than losing your case.
Are you looking for more ways to navigate your way around the law world? Check out the facts section of our blog daily for more articles like this one.