A Washington personal injury attorney is a lawyer who guides you through the personal injury claims process and helps you recover compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and impact on your life, when you have suffered a personal injury due to the carelessness or negligence of another person. Recovering compensation for you sometimes means negotiating a settlement and sometimes it means litigating against the insurance company.
Either way, there is no upfront fee to retain a personal injury attorney. Personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee. This means that they only get paid if they recover something for you, and then the fee is based on a percentage of the recovery. Most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, but that doesn’t mean their fees are all the same.
At Johnson Law, P.C., our fee is one-third of the total amount recovered after any outstanding medical bills have been taken care of. This means that our fee is less, many (and often all) of your medical bills are paid, and you receive more money. This is one of the things that makes us special, as many personal injury attorneys will charge this 33% fee regardless of whether you have outstanding medical bills. Ask any personal injury attorney you speak with to discuss what does or does not come out of the settlement or judgment before the contingency fee is calculated.
Almost all attorneys take a higher fee if the case requires an arbitration or trial. At Johnson Law, P.C., the fee will be 40 percent of the recovery. Once again, this number is calculated after any outstanding medical bills have been settled.
This information is all outlined in the Contingency Fee Agreement, which is the document that spells out the attorney-client relationship, the scope of representation, and the attorney fee. At Johnson Law, P.C. we have tried to draft our Contingency Fee Agreement in such a way so that our clients are fairly compensated and receive a higher financial recovery.
Before you sign the Contingency Fee Agreement, it’s important that you understand the entire agreement. At Johnson Law, P.C. we will review the Agreement with you paragraph by paragraph to make sure it is clear.
The Contingency Fee Agreement outlines that the fee is not paid until the completion of your claim and it is only paid if the attorney recovers money through a settlement or judgment. When funds are recovered, they are placed into the Attorney Trust Account where they must sit for 10-15 days. When the funds are disbursed, you will have the settlement breakdown explained to you in detail. At Johnson Law, P.C. we will walk you through the entire distribution and we will give you a Disbursement Letter that outlines the total recovery, repayment of any known medical bills, the attorney fee, and costs, and your distribution.
Call for your free consultation where you can speak with an experienced personal injury attorney at Johnson Law, P.C. about your case.
We will review your case for free.
Pay us nothing unless we get you a better settlement.
We work on contingency.
