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How Much Will It Cost Up Front to Hire You?
Debt Defense: $800-$2,500: We charge a flat fee to defend consumers from simple debt collection, arbitration, sequestration, or garnishment lawsuits. The fee varies depending on the county and case type. In some circumstances, we charge an additional fee such as when there is more than one defendant or the client has come to us late and we have to fix things that have gone wrong in the case.
Consultation: $200 plus expenses: We charge $200 for a consultation. If we are willing to file a lawsuit for you on a contingency fee basis, you will not have to pay any more for fees up front. I will waive the $200 consultation fee for clients who submit cases using my Free Case Review form.
Difficult Cases: $3,000 plus expenses: For certain difficult cases, We ask for a refundable $3,000 fee deposit in addition to the normal expense deposit. This deposit is used to pay for the initial work We do on the case. We typically do this for cases with some combination of the following elements: difficult proof of liability, difficult proof of damages, and/or a small business defendant from whom it may be difficult to collect. We most commonly do this with car cases involving wreck damage that require substantial investigation before filing suit.
Hourly Plus Expenses: We charge by the hour plus expenses to people who don’t want to hire us on a contingency fee basis. There are three reasons people want to hire us on an hourly basis: (1) they are a defendant in a lawsuit and therefore won’t have a recovery that will cover their fee, (2) they want legal advice without filing a lawsuit, or (3) they want to avoid paying a percentage of their recovery as a contingency fee. If you are hiring us to work on a lawsuit on an hourly basis, We will ask for a substantial fee and expense deposit, generally $1,000 plus $5,000 times the number of days We expect a trial of the case to last. We will bill you on a monthly basis for fees and expenses as they are incurred. Any unused portion of the deposit will be returned when the case is concluded. If you are just hiring us for specific legal services, we can agree to a budget so that you can be sure your fee will not exceed an agreed upon amount.
How Much Will It Cost in the End?
In most consumer cases, the defendant pays an amount for attorney’s fees in addition to the amount of your damages. That means that you will generally retain more of your damages than you would in a personal injury case where defendants only pay for damages.
If you have hired us on a contingency basis, you agree to pay 40% of the net recovery depending upon how much work we’ve done on the case, or the amount that the court requires or would likely require the defendant to pay for your attorney’s fees if that amount is greater than the contingency percentage.
What If a Contingency Fee Client Gives Up On a Case?
We are partners in our case. When we take you on as a contingency fee client, We are expecting to invest thousands of dollars of our time into your case. A typical figure for taking a simple case to trial is $20,000 worth of our time. More complicated cases can cost substantially more. If you choose to dismiss your case or settle it for less than the amount of our fee calculated on an hourly basis, then you have to pay us at our hourly rates out of your own pocket. So far, none of our clients has ever had to do this. This does not apply to situations where we lose the case. If we lose, you pay no fee.
The Nitty Gritty Details: Here Are the Fee Provisions of My Standard Contingency Fee Contract:
We agree that the base amount of our fee will be 33% of the net recovery if your claim is resolved before suit is filed, 40% of the net recovery if your claim is resolved after suit is filed. Net recovery means the total amount actually recovered minus the expenses incurred at the time of the recovery.
We agree that this base fee may be increased in 2 circumstances:
If your recovery includes an amount determined by a court or arbitrator to be a reasonable or necessary attorney’s fee for our services and that amount is greater than the base amount, the fee will be increased to the amount determined by the court or arbitrator to be reasonable or necessary.
If you settle or dismiss your case before a court or arbitrator has determined the amount of a reasonable or necessary attorney’s fee and the base amount is less than the amount of our regular hourly fee, determined by multiplying the number of hours an attorney or support staff has worked on the case by the individual’s billable rate, the fee will be increased to the amount of our regular hourly fee. We agree that our regular hourly fee is reasonable.
We agree that our fee is contingent upon us obtaining a net recovery. Except as provided in paragraph 8 below, if there is no net recovery, you pay no fee and the amount of your fee is limited to the amount of the net recovery.
You have an absolute right to voluntarily settle your case at any time, for any amount of money. You also have the absolute right to voluntarily dismiss your case at any time. We are agreeing to make a substantial investment of our time and energy into preparing and presenting your case, with the understanding that you do not presently intend to either voluntarily dismiss your case or settle it for an amount insufficient to cover our fee. In order to protect our investment, we agree that if you take either of these voluntary actions and they result in a recovery too small to cover our fee, you will pay the fee even if you have to pay the fee out of your own pocket. This paragraph only applies if you voluntarily accept a recovery that is insufficient to cover our fee or voluntarily dismiss your case. If, for example, we lose the case, a court or an arbitrator makes an award that is not large enough to cover the fee, or we are unable to collect from the defendant, this paragraph will not apply and your liability for the fee will be capped at the amount of your net recovery.