Every lawsuit has its own set of unique challenges. As such, many lawyers and firms specialize in certain areas of the law, like personal injury, criminal defense, family law, or employment law. While finding the right lawyer for you depends on the circumstances of your case, you may be wondering how your lawyer will charge you for their services.
There is a common misconception that all lawyers charge by the hour through a “retainer” agreement. This is technically true, especially for family law or defense cases. However, many lawyers also work on a “contingency” basis, which means that you pay no money upfront and the lawyer takes their fee from a percentage of any settlement or trial verdict. These fee arrangements are especially common in personal injury cases. However, not all legal cases are suitable for contingency fee arrangements, and some lawyers may prefer to work on an hourly or flat fee basis.
Free Consultations From Maison Law
At Maison Law, our team of experienced lawyers helps clients through a variety of different types of legal cases. Through our experience, we’ve learned that every client deserves strong representation that is tailored to fit their specific needs. To learn more about how our firm can represent your best interests, contact us for a free consultation.
What is a Contingency Fee?
Of all the different considerations potential clients have to make when they want to file a lawsuit, the most important is usually how they’ll pay for their lawyer. In the vast majority of cases, clients don’t have the financial resources to pay a retainer fee or the hourly rate that a lawyer has to charge in order to perform the various tasks and responsibilities that come with a lawsuit. Moreover, contingency fees are common in civil cases, because they often involve a single person–known as the plaintiff–going up against a defendant–usually an insurance company or employer–that has more significant resources at their disposal. Contingency fees are commonly used in the following cases:
- Personal injury
- Employment
- Bankruptcy
Because of this, many firms–including ours–work on a contingency fee agreement. In a contingency fee agreement, you avoid out-of-pocket costs entirely. Instead, the lawyer takes their fee from a percentage of any settlement you receive or trial verdict. Like any agreement, there are benefits and drawbacks. Ultimately though, contingency fees work well for both client and the lawyer, because the client avoids costs that they probably wouldn’t be able to pay, and the lawyer has more incentive to work the case to get maximum value to cover their costs.
Different Phases of a California Civil Case
While every case is different, every civil case in California will have a standard roadmap. If you want to pursue damages, your claims will likely go through the following three phases: pre-suit, litigation, and resolution.
- Pre-suit -The first phase of a civil case in California is pre-suit, which can begin even before hiring a lawyer. In this phase, you will gather any evidence you have for a potential claim. This evidence will vary, depending on the type of claim you have. For example, if you want to bring a claim for damages from a car accident, you’ll want to gather your medical records and any reports or photos and videos from the accident scene. From there, your free consultation with our lawyers can help you understand your legal rights and will determine if you do in fact have a viable claim. If you do, we’ll likely have you sign a fee agreement that allows us to officially represent you.
- Litigation – After the pre-suit phase, our lawyers will officially file your complaint in civil court. This will enter your case into the litigation phase. Patience is key in the litigation phase, as it can drag on for an extended amount of time as evidence is exchanged and both sides move the case through the court system. The reason that the litigation phase can be so drawn out is because of the discovery process, or the formal gathering and exchanging of evidence through interrogatories, depositions, and producing documents.
- Resolution – As the litigation phase of a case winds down, they usually resolve in two ways: settlement or trial. A case can settle at any time once in the litigation phase, even during trial. However, it is more likely that your case will resolve during mediation, which the court requires to take place prior to trial.
In terms of a settlement amount, that figure is highly dependent on the circumstances of your particular case. What’s important to understand is that, under a contingency fee agreement, you will not be paying any money out of pocket once you agree to become our client.
Our firm takes immense pride in not only our ability to represent our clients, but our communication with them throughout the process. Thus, you can always check in with our team to get the status of your case, and we will be up front with you about the costs that your case is accruing.
Contact Maison Law Today
The lifeblood of any law firm is its clients, and Maison Law believes strongly in providing each one of our clients with the exceptional representation they deserve. We look at clients as family and strive to make sure each one of them is satisfied with the outcome of their particular case. To learn more about our client-specific approach to claims, contact us for a free consultation.
