lawyer working on contingency in los angeles
Many plaintiff attorneys take on cases on a contingency basis. What this means is that the attorney will not get paid a fee unless the client wins the case either by settlement or verdict. A typical case on this basis is a car accident. Many injured people do not have the financial resources to litigate a case against the responsible party. They do not have the financial power to go to doctors, retain other experts and pay filing fees. Attorneys assess the merits of a car accident and may decide to represent the injured party on a contingency. The attorney (if the claim goes into litigation) will front the costs of the litigation (filing fees, service of process fees, expert costs, etc). When the case resolves, the client will be responsible for the fees to the attorney and to reimburse the attorney for the costs that had been fronted by the attorney. Depending upon the complexity of the case, this could run into thousands of dollars.
Doctors in personal injury cases also take cases on a lien basis. What this means is that the doctor will treat the patient and wait for payment of his/her fees until the case resolves. This is of crucial importance if the client does not have independent means to pay for their medical treatment, or do not have health insurance. Another advantage of the use of medical liens for personal work injury cases is that attorneys are sometimes able to negotiate down medical costs after settlement or verdict.
In cases where the medical expenses approach and/or are equal to or greater than the settlement or jury award, an attorney has the option of negotiating with the medical providers to lower the costs. This is how it works. For example, let us say that a plaintiff was injured in a car accident where she was sideswiped. The Plaintiff has had to go to the hospital on a couple of occasions and has had to see a specialist that performed surgery on her. Therefore, she had extensive medical bills which ended up costing her around $30,000. Her attorney, in order to ensure that she gets some compensation, is able to negotiate a settlement with the Defendant who will have to pay $25,000. If the doctors treating Plaintiff were not working on a lien system, then the Plaintiff and the lawyer would get no compensation and the Plaintiff would have to pay another $5000 in medical bills. In a lien-based system, the Plaintiff’s attorney can negotiate with the doctors to get them to reduce their medical bills based on the size of the award, in this case $25,000. The Plaintiff’s lawyer should be able to negotiate so that the Plaintiff does not have to pay her medical bills out of pocket and will still get some compensation for her injury.
Outside of the personal injury field, attorneys rarely take cases on a contingency basis, yet almost all attorneys that practice personal injury law will take on contingency cases.
Are you looking for a lawyer to work on contingency basis for your case? Call or email LA Jewish Lawyer Now and will gladly spend a free hour of consultation with you to see how we can help you. 855-977-1212 or email below……
