Personal Injury Law

What to Do if You Need a Florida Personal Injury Attorney But Don?t Have the Money

By Flaxman & Lopez

If you have been in a Florida car accident or have sustained an injury that may result in a legal claim or lawsuit, you will need to a good Florida personal injury lawyer to represent you. However, many people who have a legitimate case worry about contacting an attorney because they worry about legal fees. The good news is that many Florida personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis. This means that they do not get paid upfront. Instead, if you receive an out-of-court settlement or win your case in court, the attorney will be paid out of the proceeds of the case. Attorneys who work on a contingency basis ensure that clients with deserving cases can still recover for damages after a Florida accident ? even when money is not immediately available for legal fees.

If you do decide to work with a Florida personal injury attorney, it is important to understand the types of legal fees which you will eventually be charged. Legal fees for a case vary widely, depending on the amount of time a case takes, the complexity of a case, and the amount of work and specialization a case requires. There are several types of fees you may be charged:

1) An hourly fee. Some Florida personal injury attorneys charge hourly fees for specific work done on a case. The fee can vary even on the same case, depending on what sorts of services are offered. An hour of drafting a lettering in a case, for example, may be billed differently than an hour of private investigation into a case.

2) Consultation fee. This fee is usually a per-hour rate which some Florida attorneys charge for initial meetings with clients. Many experienced Florida personal injury attorneys, however, do not charge for an initial consultation.

3) Flat fee. Also known as the task-based fee, this is the method of setting fees most used with short, relatively simple legal matters. For example, an attorney may set a flat fee for creating a will, because it is easy to predict how long the task will take.

4) Contingency fees. As discussed above, in this type of fee structure, the attorney gets paid only if and when a client wins a case in court or wins an out-of-court settlement. If the client does not recover any money in the case, the attorney does not charge any fees other than the expenses related to the case. If a case is won or reaches a settlement, an attorney will usually charge a contingency fee in addition to any case expenses. The fee covers the risk the attorney accepts in taking on the case and is usually calculated as a percentage. It is important to understand what fees you are responsible for in the event of a loss and what the contingency fee is if you do win.

5) Statuary fees. In some bankruptcy, probate, and other court cases, the court or law sets the fees.

Full post as published by Florida Injury Lawyer Blog on October 14, 2010 (boomark / email).