Who Pays For My Case Costs, And Is That Part Of The Settlement?

What is a contingency fee?

Like most Texas personal injury lawyers, the law firm of Justinian & Associates works with injured clients on a contingency fee basis.

• Contingent means dependent. So whether we get paid any fee depends on us winning your case or obtaining a settlement for you.

If We Fail To Recover Money For You, We Get Paid Nothing

We Pay The Upfront Costs of Your Personal Injury Lawsuit

We pay all of the legal costs of your case. This can include:

• Court filing fees
• Document Request and Duplication
• Investigators
• Expert Witnesses

An Example of a Contingency Fee in Action

The chart below illustrates how a settlement of $10,000 dollars would be distributed to a client, to our firm, and to the doctors that treated the client. The example below uses a 33% fee for the law firm, which is common.

Note: This is a Fictional Settlement. This case and these dollar figures may not represent the facts or law of your case.

Sample Contingency Settlement

The injured client receives in this case $5,200 dollars, the law firm receives $3,300 in fees for representation, and the law firm also receives $500 dollars to reimburse it for expenses it paid on the client’s behalf. Additionally, the doctors that treated the personal injury client are paid $1,000 dollars to settle the client’s bills.

Contingency Fees Make Us Work Hard to Get You as Much Money as Possible

This is a fictional settlement using round numbers to easily illustrate how a contingency fee works, but the principals will remain the same no matter what the dollar amounts are.

As you can tell, the larger the total amount of the settlement or jury award, the larger the amount of the fee that our law firm receives will be.

So we try and get you the largest settlement we possibly can.

Also, because we only get paid when you get paid, we have every reason to try to settle your case as quickly and effectively as possible.

Contingency Fees Empower Injured Victims Who Cannot Afford Legal Help

It has been said that contingency fees are the “key to the courthouse door” because they allow anyone to hire an attorney – especially those who cannot afford to pay an attorney by the hour.

Personal injury cases are a type of civil wrong called a tort. Under Texas law, when a person or company commits a tort, they have wronged someone else, and often must pay for the victim’s bodily injuries and property damage.

But many of the people and companies that hurt people through reckless or careless behavior also have a lot of resources, and armies of attorneys.

Many of the people injured do not have enough money and resources to hire an attorney and pay all of the costs needed to file a personal injury lawsuit in Texas. $200 per hour is a low hourly fee for an attorney these days.

Without contingency fees, few people could afford to hire personal injury lawyers, especially for complex cases that can take years.

• The Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association found that eliminating or constraining contingency fees “would make legal assistance available only to those injured persons who are wealthy. The poor, the retired, African Americans, and women especially will suffer because they are often unable to afford hourly fees.”

A Texas Personal Injury Law Firm That Knows What You’re Up Against

We Never Drag a Case Out

It’s a common misconception that personal injury lawyers like us “drag things out” to try and earn more money. It simply does not work that way.

The longer we wait to resolve a case, the longer we are risking our money and time in a lawsuit. We try and resolve every personal injury case for the highest amount of money we can as quickly as we can.

That’s what is so great about the contingency fee system – it makes sure an personal injury client and a personal injury lawyer have the same goal.

Who Determines When to Settle and For How Much Money?

IIf you hire Justinian & Associates as your Texas personal injury firm, you will make all the decisions of when to settle and how much money to accept.

Without exception.

Our law firm never makes the decision whether to settle a client’s injury case.

We can make a recommendation to the client as to whether a settlement is fair, but it’s up to the client to decide whether or not to accept the offer.

Sometimes a client needs money quickly and wants to settle a case for less money than it is worth.

We generally advise against this, but if that’s what the client wants, it’s what we do because we work for the client.

Other times, the client wants a settlement that is not fair or otherwise is not likely to happen.

In those cases, we advise the client that going forward with a lawsuit can add additional time and expenses to the case. We also advise that there is always the potential that the client will lose the lawsuit and end up with nothing.

Once the client is properly advised, we either move forward and take our chances, or we accept a settlement if the client changes his or her mind.

Note: Under Texas laws and regulations governing attorneys, personal injury attorneys are not allowed to settle a case without a client’s permission. We never ever do that. (And neither will any other personal injury lawyer who doesn’t want to be disbarred.)

Warriors for the Injured

Justinian & Associates has been representing victims of automobile accidents for a decade. From small personal injury matters to mass tort litigation involving hundreds of injured consumers, we have fought for thousands of clients in Texas injured by:

We have a roster of highly-trained and seasoned personal injury lawyers, driven by a sense of fairness and helping others.

Our only goal is justice for our clients, whatever that means for them.

Our Texas personal injury lawyers will build your case using investigators, advanced technology like computer modeling and testimony from health and engineering experts. We can demonstrate how you were injured, and why the person or company responsible must compensate your injuries.

Our representation is tailored to your individual case and needs. Our cutting-edge communications technology keeps us in reach at all times. But we are always available, and will gladly meet you in person while you recover at the hospital, or wherever is convenient.

Waiting To File A Claim Can Hurt Your Case

You can lose the right to receive any compensation for your injuries and property damage. That’s true, even if the facts show the other party was responsible and you did nothing wrong.

Don’t delay. Make the phone call, and start explaining your side of the story.

Because Justinian Means Justice.