If a truck accident lawyer is working under a “contingency agreement” and wins your case for you, the attorney receives a “success fee.” This fee is usually around a third of the settlement you are awarded.
Reputable California truck accident lawyers usually work on a contingency basis and only get paid if your case is successful. If your case is lost, you don’t owe the attorney anything. It’s only when your case is won that a lawyer receives payment.
How Does Case Success Affect a Truck Accident Lawyer’s Contingency Fee?
When you sign a contingency fee agreement with a truck accident lawyer, you agree to certain terms determining when your attorney gets paid, how they get paid, and how much.
Under the standard contingency agreement, injured crash victims don’t have to pay any upfront money to hire a lawyer. In fact, the attorney receives nothing if the case is lost.
If the case is a success, victims still don’t have to pay out anything from their own savings or income. The lawyer’s fee, which is usually around 33%, is taken from the settlement money or court judgment the victim is awarded. Lawyers are paid for their services and, in some cases, reimbursed for some investigative costs and court fees.
Then the victim receives the rest of a hopefully substantial settlement to cover all medical bills now and in the future. The victim’s lost income while having to miss work with an injury should also be reimbursed. A settlement check should also include compensation for the physical pain and emotional trauma traffic accident victims go through.
Visit our page that explains further how much a California truck accident lawyer gets paid.
Why Does a California Truck Accident Lawyer Get a Success Fee?
Lawyers receive this fee because they take a big financial risk to handle the client’s case without a guarantee they’ll get paid for their work. Representing truck accident victims under a contingency fee means the attorney could end up with nothing after putting in a substantial amount of time and spending money to investigate the accident.
A lawyer would cover expenses required for accident reconstruction, pay expert witnesses, and cover other evidence-gathering costs. Lawyers go without any assurance they’ll get paid for their work. A success fee is a way to make the risk level more acceptable and ensure every victim can afford quality legal representation.
Cases are unpredictable and judges and juries sometimes make unexpected decisions. Lawyers can lose cases through no fault of their own. A law firm can sink a lot of time and funds into a case, only to get nothing in return.
Case success is never a sure thing, but most lawyers would only take a case if they thought it was a strong one. They’d also only accept your case if they felt they could earn you much more from insurance companies than you could on your own. The idea is for the lawyer to secure you enough in compensation to pay the attorney fee with plenty left over to provide you with much more than you would have earned if you’d handled your case yourself.
Truck Accident Case Expenses
Cases against trucking companies and commercial truck insurance providers can also require a higher initial cost for investigation. Large trucking companies or delivery companies like Amazon can afford teams of lawyers to try to blame the accident on an innocent victim. Your lawyer may have to pay for accident reconstruction teams and medical expert testimony to make sure corporate lawyers can’t change the facts of what happened.
These are case costs a normal victim injured in a truck crash probably couldn’t afford to cover. A Maison Law attorney covers these expenses until a truck insurance provider can be forced to accept financial liability.
When Do I Need the Help of a California Truck Accident Lawyer?
If your truck accident involves property damage and only very minor injuries, you may not need the help of a lawyer for your case. Unfortunately, truck accidents usually carry extra force into collisions and cause more severe injuries.
With the added costs involved in the care of a serious injury, insurance adjusters work even harder to get out of having to accept responsibility. Your Maison Law lawyer has experience facing off against these large companies and corporations. Legal representation is a powerful protection for your case. Allowing an experienced lawyer to handle your case is a decision that often sees you win much more than you would have won by yourself.
Contact a California Truck Accident Lawyer for a free, no-obligation consultation. It’s a no-risk way to find out what your injury is worth and what you should be holding an insurance company to. If we can’t help improve the outcome of your case, we’ll tell you that and explain how to handle the case yourself. If you do feel we can help you earn more for your injury, there’s no need to worry about finding the money to hire us. We work under a contingency agreement and don’t get paid unless we win your case.
