Contingency Fees: Making it Possible for You to Retain a Personal Injury Attorney

The beauty of having a contingency fee arrangement

Personal injury victims often feel like they’re living in the worst possible nightmare. They have sustained a serious injury in a car crash or other catastrophic event from which they need to physically and emotionally recover. Their hospital bills are skyrocketing at the precise time they have to take time off from work. The attorney or insurance company for the negligent party who caused the accident likely is hounding them to sign a release and accept a lowball settlement offer. They know they should hire a personal injury attorney to fight for them, but they also know that attorneys’ fees are the last thing they need or can afford.

If this scenario describes you, you will be glad to know that the contingency fees offered by Giroux Pappas Trial Attorneys make it possible for you to hire one of America’s top personal injury law firms without having to pay up-front attorneys’ fees. In fact, you pay us nothing unless and until we recover the compensation for you that you need and deserve.

What Is a Contingency Fee?

As its name implies, a contingency fee is one you pay contingent on the outcome of your personal injury case. The beauty of having a contingency fee arrangement with your attorney, however, is that you never actually pay anything out of your own pocket. Instead, the amount you owe us for our legal services comes out of the ultimate settlement or jury award we obtain for you. This makes a contingency fee arrangement a favorable proposition for both you and us.

How Do Contingency Fee Arrangements Work?

We offer two basic types of contingency fee arrangements here at Giroux Pappas Trial Attorneys: flat percentage and graduated percentage. In the first type, your written employment contract with us will designate a specific percentage of the ultimate compensation amount we obtain for you. In the second type, the contract will specify a certain percentage that we will deduct from your settlement if we successfully resolve your case through negotiations with the defendant’s insurance company and a somewhat higher percentage we will deduct if the insurance company proves unreasonable and we conduct a full-blown trial in order to obtain a jury award for you.

Contingency Fee Example

Suppose, for instance, that you enter into a written employment agreement with Giroux Pappas Trial Attorneys that specifies that we receive 33-1/3% of whatever compensation we recover for you. Suppose further that our efforts result in a $500,000 compensation award for you. We will first deduct from that gross amount the expenses, such as the following, we encountered while aggressively pursuing your claim:

• Court filing fees
• Copies of your medical records and reports
• Response to the other side’s written discovery requests
• Witness preparation
• Depositions of expert and other witnesses
• Fees paid for court reporters, videographers, etc.
• Travel expenses

We then split the net balance of your compensation award two-thirds to you and one-third to us. Keep in mind, however, that if you have outstanding medical or other injury-related bills, we will pay these on your behalf out of your share before remitting the rest of your percentage to you.

Michigan Rules

Rule 8.121 of the Michigan Rules of Court mandates that Michigan attorneys charge our clients a maximum of one-third of the amount of compensation we recover for them in personal injury or wrongful death cases. It also requires us to enter into a written employment agreement with you before taking your case and to thoroughly explain the agreement’s provisions to you before you sign it. In addition, you will receive a copy of the signed agreement. Consequently, you can rest assured that you will know exactly what to expect before we put our experience and dedication to work on your behalf.

Our team of experienced personal injury attorneys takes pride in treating every client like a member of their own family because we understand that when your loved one is suffering they need a strong voice to help navigate them through the legal process and we won’t stop until we get the right result for you. If you need to speak with an attorney about your case do not hesitate to contact us, we are here to answer any questions you may have. The consultation is free.