Before you hire a personal injury attorney, you'll sign a fee agreement. Understanding exactly how your attorney gets paid — and how those fees affect your final take-home — is one of the most important things you can do before signing anything.
How a Contingency Fee Works
A contingency fee means the attorney gets paid a percentage of your settlement — but only if you win. If you lose, you owe no attorney fee.
This structure aligns attorney incentives with yours: they're motivated to maximize your recovery because their pay depends on it. It also makes legal representation accessible to people who can't afford hourly legal fees upfront.
| Case Stage | Typical Contingency % |
|---|---|
| Pre-suit settlement | 33.3% — most common |
| After lawsuit is filed | 40% |
| Trial or appellate stage | 40–45% |
The fee escalates because filing and litigating a case requires significantly more attorney time and resources. Once a suit is filed, the attorney's risk and workload increase — so does their cut.
The Hidden Cost: Case Expenses
Attorney fees and case costs are two separate deductions. Even on a contingency case, you will typically owe costs regardless of outcome (unless your agreement specifies otherwise).
Common case costs include court filing fees, expert witness fees (medical, accident reconstruction, economic), deposition costs and court reporters, private investigator fees, medical records retrieval, and postage and administrative expenses.
These can range from a few hundred dollars for a simple case to tens of thousands for a case with multiple experts and extensive litigation.
Critical detail: Ask your attorney whether costs are deducted before or after the contingency fee is calculated. "Before" (gross method) lowers your attorney's fee slightly. "After" (net method) is more common and results in a higher fee.
The Net Settlement: What You Actually Receive
The formula most people forget:
Your payout = Gross Settlement − Attorney Fee − Case Costs − Medical Liens
Medical liens are a major factor many claimants overlook. If your health insurance or Medicare paid for your treatment, they have a right to reimbursement from your settlement. Your attorney can often negotiate these liens down — but they don't disappear automatically.
When Hourly Billing Applies
Hourly billing is rare in personal injury cases — because most injured clients can't afford to pay $300–$600/hour upfront. However, hourly arrangements may arise in cases where liability is clear and damages are modest, if the case is at a later stage and the attorney takes over mid-litigation, or in niche situations where the client wants a review of a proposed settlement only.
For standard car accident, slip-and-fall, and injury cases, contingency fee is almost always the correct structure.
Can You Negotiate the Contingency Fee?
Yes — particularly for high-value, low-risk cases. If your liability is clear and damages are well-documented, an attorney's risk is lower and there may be room to negotiate from 33% to 28–30%.
The time to negotiate is before you sign. Once you sign the fee agreement, the percentage is locked in.
See exactly how fees affect your net payout:
Use the Attorney Fee Calculator →