The Cost of a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Personal injury lawsuits oftentimes end up costing quite a bit of money to file. In addition to attorney’s fees, you’ll have to pay the costs of depositions, expert witnesses and more. This means that you might need to work with an attorney under a particular type of arrangement that allows you to avoid paying the costs of going to court out of your own pocket.

A Common Scenario

When you file a lawsuit, you’ll usually face a few costs that are unavoidable. First, you’ll have to pay for the costs of expert witnesses. These individuals can cost as must as $500 per hour, sometimes more, but they’re vital to winning some claims. You’ll also have to pay the costs for having all the research done, for taking depositions and so forth. This can run up into the $10,000 range very quickly.

You’ll also have to pay your attorney, of course. Oftentimes, attorneys will work for a guaranteed portion of any settlement or jury award you receive. This ensures that you don’t end up paying a huge fee if you get a small settlement or jury award.

Given this information, you can assume the following. You’re going to have to pay for:

• Interviewing and taking depositions

• Gathering documents and doing research

• Expert witnesses

• Miscellaneous administrative fees

• A portion of the settlement

Contingency

One of the ways that you can get around paying these fees up front is to work on contingency with the attorney. This means that the attorney doesn’t get paid unless they get a jury award for you or the defendant offers an acceptable settlement and you take it. Car accident attorneys who work under this arrangement, of course, won’t take a case if they think it’s going to lose. Make sure you’re clear on everything they’re going to charge you before you actually take them up on such an offer, however.

There are some attorneys who will work under different arrangements, as well. Attorneys will generally turn cases down if they think it’s going to lose or if the amount you stand to gain isn’t enough to pay for their fees. You can take this to mean that they either don’t want to take people’s money without being able to help them or that they don’t want to take cases they’ll lose money on but, either way, it means that the people who come to them for help don’t end up being in considerable debt.

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