Tag Archive for: car accident

Airbag Burns And Other Injuries

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Airbag Burns And Other Injuries

While they may save your life, airbags can cause airbag burns and other severe injuries, when deployed. Car accidents can be life changing, we are here to help you through every step of the process. This includes discussing airbag injuries, what makes an airbag deploy (or why your airbags didn’t deploy), and how this will affect your case.

What Makes an Airbag Deploy?

Modern vehicles are fitted with crash and pressure senses to determine if a crash has occurred. When a collision occurs, and it is detected by the sensors, the corresponding airbags are triggered and released. Airbags are designed by the manufacturer to deploy as quickly as possible, in order to stop a sudden impact on the human body from occurring. Airbags are fitted into the sides of a car and positioned in front of the upper body and head of any passenger or driver. While they are meant to prevent harm, certain aspects of airbags are dangerous and can cause serious injury, hence the precautions taken so that they only deploy during a collision.

Three Common Injuries Caused by Airbags

Abrasions

Abrasions to the upper body are quite common in airbag Injuries. This includes abrasions to the head, chest, arms, and neck, often manifesting as airbag burns. The chemicals released upon airbag deployment consist of various high temperature gases. They create and release sodium hydroxide, a highly irritant substance to human skin. This substance, when mixed with  other chemicals, can cause serious skin injuries. Some of these injuries include: chemical and thermal burns, traumatic lesions, and irritant dermatitis. Non-skin injuries resulting from the release of these chemicals consist of possible ocular damage, bone fractures, and damage to the ear and ear area.

Conducive/Concussive Damage

The sudden release and immediate impact of the upper body on an airbag following a vehicular collision can cause serious contusions and possible concussive side effects. These contusions, or extreme bruising, can affect the face, neck, shoulders, arms, and chest and side area. These contusions can be extremely dangerous and painful, affecting a wide area very quickly, combined with possible seat belt damage, yielding similar results.

This sudden impact can also have concussive results. A concussion is a serious injury. Diagnosing a concussion can be difficult but by seeking medical attention immediately after the accident, you can identify the signs of a concussion and take measures to treat it.

Broken Bones and Scarring

There are fourteen bones in the human face. The direct impact of an airbag applies enough pressure to seriously damage or even break any bone with which it makes contact. Cartilage damage can leave permanent scarring in the nose and ears and lead to breathing problems and difficulties later in life. Your personal injury settlement should reflect a doctor’s opinion as to whether you will have permanent damage from airbag injuries, including scarring such as that detailed above. These injuries are not just temporary, they can prevent work and severely interfere with your day to day life.

Airbag Malfunction

In certain instances, airbags have been known to spontaneously deploy. This is a serious danger to every driver and passenger as it can cause damage to the driver from the airbag deployment, as well as cause a car wreck if the driver is unable to properly operate the vehicle with the airbag deployed. There have also been cases in which a collision occurs and the airbags malfunction, and fail to deploy. If you were in an accident and your airbags failed to deploy, and if that failure caused you injuries, you may be entitled to compensation from the manufacturer of the vehicle or airbags.

Speak With A Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

 

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Hit And Run Accident Lawyer

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Hit And Run Accident Lawyer

If you were the victim of a hit-and-run accident, we’re here to fight for you. You may think the only option is to either put a claim in with your insurance company or pay for your damages yourself. In fact, after a hit and run accident, North Carolina drivers have the option of accessing the Uninsured Motorist Coverage on their own policy. An experienced hit and run accident lawyer will help prove your case to the insurance adjuster and obtain the best results for you in this difficult fact pattern.

Establishing Liability After A Hit And Run Accident

Insurance adjusters see a lot of insurance fraud. Every day, someone claims to have a slip and fall claim or claims to be the victim of a hit and run. Before an insurance company will pay for damages to your property or pay for your personal injury, you must prove their obligation to do so. In a hit-and-run scenario, the only proof you have is the damage to your vehicle. Even with that, you have the burden to prove to the insurance adjuster that another driver caused that damage and that the incident was the other driver’s fault. You may have a police report, but again, that report will only contain your statement to the officer that another vehicle hit you. It is not strong evidence.

The Layton Law Firm will examine your fact pattern, photographs of the damage to your vehicle, and other pertinent information to help establish fault. In some cases, there is footage of the incident available through a request with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department. This requires a hearing to obtain the footage but it can often make all the difference in whether you recover anything for your injuries from the hit and run accident.

Accessing Underinsured Motorist Coverage

If your personal injury lawyer can establish that another party was responsible for your damages and injury, and fled the scene, the lawyer will be able to successfully trigger a claim under the uninsured motorist provision of your policy. A claim placed under this designation should not have any negative consequences upon your insurance rates and allows you access to the compensation you deserve for your injuries.

Fighting Your Own Insurance Company

For a time, while your underinsured motorist claim is active, you and your insurance company will be adversaries. For this reason, it’s extremely important to have a personal injury lawyer represent you. Most clients we speak with who have tried to make an underinsured motorist claim for a hit and run have been denied by their insurance company. We are usually able to reverse that decision.

Addressing Personal Injury Liens

Your personal injury attorney will also make sure that the medical providers who have liens against your injury settlement pursuant to N.C.G.S. 44-49 and 44-50 are addressed as part of the settlement. Individuals who settle their own claims without addressing these liens may find out after the fact that they owe most of the settlement to third parties—this entirely undoes the benefits of having negotiated your own settlement.

Speak With A Hit And Run Accident Lawyer Today

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

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Will A Pre-Existing Injury Affect My Personal Injury Case?

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Will A Pre-Existing Injury Affect My Personal Injury Case?

A pre-existing injury will affect your personal injury claim because your attorney will need to establish the difference between your physical and mental condition at the time of the car accident, and after the car accident. In other words, the at-fault party is only responsible for the damage they cause as a direct result of the accident.

Most commonly, pre-existing injuries are back or neck injuries, shoulder injuries, and knee injuries. As you might imagine, it’s easy to distinguish a pre-existing shoulder injury from a head injury that stemmed from the accident. In that case, the at-fault party would not be responsible for the shoulder injury because it is not related to the accident. A much more difficult situation to sort through is one where a client has a pre-existing back injury, and the most recent car accident worsens that back injury. The at-fault party only wants to pay for the additional damage which was caused by the car accident.

Medical Records Prior To The Accident

One way to prove that the injuries you are experiencing are a direct result of the accident is to prove you did not have those conditions prior to the accident. Quite often, insurance adjusters will ask you to provide a few years of prior medical records. If you were treated for back pain the year prior to the car accident, you can count on the insurance adjuster arguing that the car accident only aggravated the back injury, but did not cause it. As a result, the adjuster will lower the value of your claim, affecting the settlement value of your case.

Treatment After The Accident

The insurance adjuster will also carefully review your medical records after the accident. For this reason, if possible, you should treat with the same physicians or team of health professionals after the accident, that you treated with before the accident. Those professionals are in the best position to make a statement as to your injuries prior to the accident, versus after the accident.

The Eggshell Plaintiff Theory

There is an eggshell plaintiff theory in North Carolina. While this is not a statute, it is a result of common law or case law over the years. The general rule that comes from the eggshell plaintiff theory essentially states that just because an injured party was prone to a particular injury does not mean they should not be compensated for it. For example, assume a particular individual has a condition that makes them more susceptible to suffer PTSD from a traumatic event. If the accident causes them PTSD, the at-fault party is still responsible for that. This is true even if most other individuals would not have had PTSD from the event. The at-fault party is not responsible for the underlying susceptibility to PTSD, but they are responsible for the PTSD which was caused by the accident.

Before And After

Your personal injury lawyer will address any pre-existing injury concerns by demonstrating to the adjuster the difference between your life before the accident and after the accident. While medical records and medical billing help to establish this, the attorney can also gather additional evidence to support this. Your inability to participate in activities such as horseback riding or running, or your inability to interact with your grandchildren in the same manner after the accident as before the accident, all count toward the value of your car accident or slip and fall claim.

Speak With A Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

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How Much Does It Cost To Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer?

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How Much Does It Cost To Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer?

It doesn’t cost anything to hire a personal injury lawyer when you work with The Layton Law Firm, PLLC. Our firm works on a contingency basis. This means we only get paid if we are able to reach a settlement or a jury verdict for you. If we are unable to reach a settlement or verdict for you, you will not receive a bill.

The contingency arrangement allows those injured in car accidents, workers’ compensation accidents, and slip and fall accidents to obtain legal representation without spending money to do so. This is an extremely important aspect of our legal system. By providing clients with legal representation, personal injury lawyers are protecting everyday consumers from large insurance companies and their corporate legal teams.

How Do I Hire A Personal Injury Lawyer?

Hiring a personal injury lawyer is easy. When you work with The Layton Law Firm, PLLC, you can complete most of the intake online. There are a few docs that need to be signed. We can meet with you in the office to sign that paperwork, or if it’s more convenient for you, we can mail or email it to you to sign. We’re flexible. Whatever is easiest for you works for us.

Once you have signed a contract with the firm, we will send a Letter of Representation to the insurance company for the at-fault party. The letter of representation will confirm we represent you in the personal injury matter. It also requests all transcripts or recordings of conversations or statements you may have made to the insurance adjuster for the other side.

Will The Layton Law Firm Take My Case?

We can’t take every case that we are presented with; however, you deserve to speak with a lawyer about your case so you can understand your rights. Our free consultations are meant to help us understand your case, and provide you with what we believe to be your options for moving forward. If we are unable to take your case for some reason, we will explain why, and try to refer you to another law firm we think would be a good fit for the case.

Is My Case Too Small For A Personal Injury Lawyer?

Many clients mistakenly believe that personal injury lawyers only take large cases. This simply is not true. We take on minor accident cases every day at our firm, and we are just as interested in helping and protecting those clients as we are in working on larger cases.

Speak With A Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

 

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Who Pays For Your Rental Car After An Accident?

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Who Pays For Your Rental Car After An Accident?

Depending upon the situation, the at fault driver should pay for your rental car after an accident. However, the obstacle to this is that the at fault driver’s insurance company wants to investigate the claim. This is true even if it is a rear end accident with clear liability. The insurance investigation can take a few weeks—too long for you to wait for a them to approve a rental car.

Your Insurance Policy May Have Rental Coverage

You should check to see if your insurance policy has rental car coverage. Your North Carolina auto insurance policy may have rental car coverage. If it does, the rental car will be paid for by your insurance company. Then, your insurance company will pursue the at fault driver’s insurance company for a reimbursement. The good news is you don’t have to wait for an investigation to take place before being provided with a rental car after the accident. When you speak with the insurance company, you should also confirm whether you have Medical Payments coverage to assist with your medical bills and medical liens from the car accident.

You Can Pay For Your Rental Car After An Accident

Another option is for you to pay for the rental car after the accident. Not a good option, but if you do pay for the rental car, you can seek reimbursement from the at fault driver’s insurance company once their investigation is complete. Keep in mind, the at fault driver’s insurance company will do everything they can to pay the lowest daily amount for a rental car. It is a rare situation to be reimbursed in full for a rental car you paid for on your own.

Legal Representation Often Makes All The Difference

If you’ve been in an accident and you can’t get the other driver’s insurance company to pay for a rental car, call a lawyer. Having legal representation makes all the difference when it comes to personal injury claims. If our firm represents you for your personal injury, we will assist you with your property damage claim at no additional charge. This includes providing guidance as to how to get the at fault driver’s insurance company to pay for a rental car.

Speak With A Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

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Minor Auto Accidents

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Your minor auto accident or motorcycle accident is important to us, no matter how small. Even in cases or claims where most of the damage is property damage (vs. personal injury or bodily injury), we can and want to help.

Clients quite often don’t know what their rights are in an minor auto accident, and it’s not always as easy as making a claim with the at-fault party’s auto insurance company. Quite often, those claims are denied or individuals are ignored by the insurance company, in hopes they will give up or go away. Additionally, there are times when an insurance company will offer a dramatically low value for your damaged property based on a quote provided by a third party they have a strong relationship with. Having a personal injury lawyer represent you, even if your claim is only for property damage, helps prevent this type of behavior.

Call our office for a consultation today. We’ll discuss what happened, and help you determine your options, which may range from pursuing a claim against the at-fault party’s insured, to simply determining what insurance is available for you to pay your existing medical bills or compensate you for your damaged property.

If you have questions about a minor auto accident or motorcycle accident, take the next step toward recovery and call 704.749.7747 today. We’re here to help.

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Passenger Accident Claims And Insurance

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Passenger Accident Claims And Insurance

If you are a passenger in a car accident, you will potentially have numerous options available to compensate you for your personal injury claim. Except for in limited circumstances, passengers are not at fault for car accidents. This means liability (who is at fault) will not be contested. Instead, your claim will be fought over the injuries and which insurance company should pay for those injuries.

Pursuing Your Passenger Accident Claim

Working with a personal injury law firm will protect your rights as you attempt to recover from your injuries from a car accident. The personal injury lawyer will also help you sort through the liability associated with the accident. The first thing the lawyer will ask for is a copy of the police report from the accident.  Typically, the police report will contain statements from both drivers, together with a diagram of the accident. There are numerous sections of the police report where the attending officer makes notes which help tell the story of the accident. These notes contain everything from the estimated speed of the vehicles upon impact, to the road conditions. Lastly, the police report will also make note of any citations given to either driver, which can dramatically help or affect your case depending upon the citation.

If you do not have a police report from the accident, we can assist you with obtaining one at no cost. Just click HERE to request one.

Starting Your Personal Injury Passenger Accident Claim

Assuming the police report indicates the other driver is at fault, the most logical entity to pursue is the insurance company for the other driver. In North Carolina, there are insurance minimums that each driver must carry. The minimums in North Carolina are $30,000 for one person for bodily injury (“Personal Injury”) and $60,000 for injuries to two or more people in a single accident. Additionally, each driver must have $25,000 in property damage coverage; however, if you are a passenger the property damage aspect will most likely not affect you.

If you are a passenger, this means that the driver of your vehicle may also be injured. You can see how, depending upon the severity of the injury, the injuries for all individuals in your vehicle may exceed the amount of insurance the at-fault driver carries. If this is the case, you can also pursue an Underinsured Motorist Claim by starting a second claim with the insurance of the driver of your vehicle.

Your personal injury attorney will advise you as to the specifics of this claim, and you must be careful not to settle for less than the full policy amount of the at-fault driver’s insurance policy if you intend to pursue an Underinsured Motorist Claim. Lastly, the underinsured motorist limits must exceed the limits of the policy of the at-fault driver. If your claim comes to this crossroads, your personal injury attorney’s skill set in navigating underinsured motorist coverage will help you tremendously.

What If Your Driver Is At Fault?

If the driver of your vehicle is at fault, this will not prevent you from recovering from your injuries. Provided you did not contribute to the accident, your lawyer can start a claim with the insurance company for your driver. The minimums mentioned above will still be in effect.

Recovering With Medical Payments Coverage In Passenger Accident Claims

Your personal injury lawyer can also pursue a medical payments claim for you. If you or the driver of your vehicle have medical payments coverage on your auto policies, you can submit medical bills from the accident. You will be reimbursed for reasonable and necessary medical expenses which stem from the accident. While these amounts are typically $1,000-$5,000 they can make all the difference in settling a personal injury claim. This is particularly true of a smaller claim.

If you are able to recover medical payments coverage, your lawyer should be able to successfully argue for you that your medical payments coverage is not subject to the Medical Liens in personal injury created by N.C.G.S. 44-49 and 44-50, which helps you to retain more of your settlement funds.

Speak With A Personal Injury Lawyer Today About Passenger Accident Claims

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article “Passenger Accident Claims And Insurance” was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

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Personal Injury and Medicare Liens

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Personal Injury And Medicare

Your personal injury claim may have a lien against it owed to Medicare. Your attorney will contact Medicare and receive a Conditional Payments Letter from CMS, which will tell you exactly how much of your personal injury settlement must be paid to Medicare.

Why Does Medicare Get Paid From Personal Injury Funds?

Medicare has an automatic lien against settlement proceeds if they derive from a personal injury accident that reaches a settlement or jury verdict. In this way, personal injury and medicare are necessarily tied to one another. While it is speculation, the underlying rationale for this is that if your health insurance provider pays for your medical treatment and you receive compensation for your injuries, you’ve been paid twice.

As a result, Medicare is granted a personal injury medical lien. Fortunately, that lien can often be reduced in accordance with the medicare procurement formula which is applied when your attorney provided Medicare with the settlement amount, attorney fees, and attorney expenses associated with reaching the settlement or jury verdict.

Reducing Your Medicare Lien In Personal Injury

Medicare will apply the procurement formula to reduce your personal injury lien. In doing so, they consider the attorney fees paid, and the out-of-pocket expenses the attorney incurred in obtaining your personal injury settlement. These expenses can be substantial especially if a lawsuit is filed and expenses for expert testimony and depositions are incurred.

If your case is settled for $5,000 or less, you can generally assume that Medicare will limit their recovery to 25% of the total settlement, regardless of the amount Medicare paid for treatment of your injuries related to the accident.

When Does Medicare Get Paid?

Your personal injury lawyer will provide you with a settlement sheet dictating where every penny of your personal injury settlement is going. You will see a line item to Medicare. This indicates that the personal injury lawyer is going to send a check to Medicare as part of disbursing settlement funds. Typically, a few days after you sign your settlement statement and receive a settlement check from your personal injury claim, your lawyer’s office will disburse all remaining funds as dictated on the settlement sheet.

There are times when your attorney will wait to disburse funds on the settlement sheet. For example, the attorney may allocate the highest amount possible to be paid to Medicare or other providers, with the hopes of negotiating or procuring reductions for some or all of the billing. If this is achieved, you will be asked to sign an updated settlement sheet. Presumably, as a result of any negotiated and lowered billing, you may receive additional funds from the settlement.

Speak With A Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article on “Personal injury and medicare” was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

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3 Steps: How To Choose A Personal Injury attorney

The process of choosing a personal injury attorney can be a challenging one; however, we believe if you follow these 3 simple steps, you will end up with the right attorney. It’s important to choose the right personal injury attorney or personal injury law firm because most personal injury claims take much longer than expected to reach a settlement or to go to trial. As a result, you will be in a long-term relationship with your personal injury attorney—so make the choice count.

Step One: Speak With The Personal Injury Attorney On The Phone

Speaking with your personal injury attorney on the phone is Step One in how to choose a personal injury attorney. Here’s why: if you can’t get the attorney to speak with you on the phone before you hire them, chances are you will never be able to get them on the phone after you hire them. Personal injury law firms and attorneys, in general, are notorious for not returning phone calls. In fact, the American Bar Association has written about Lawyer Communication Skills extensively.  It’s not necessarily that they aren’t working on your personal injury claim, it’s just that they are busy. But that doesn’t change the fact that you deserve updates and communication.

Another reason to speak with the attorney on the phone is that you can tell a lot about an individual and a law firm, during a phone call. When you speak with the attorney on the phone, listen for the following:

Tone Of Voice: Is the attorney sympathetic to your situation, no matter how ‘minor’ your accident may have been? You should be able to hear it in her voice.

Length Of The Call: Is the attorney rushing the phone call by cutting you off while you’re trying to tell him your story? An attorney who is too busy to hear even the facts of your case is not a good fit.

An Expression Of Appreciation: While you may be speaking with a successful personal injury attorney at a successful personal injury law firm, that does not mean that you’re not important. There should be an expression of thankfulness and gratitude that you have chosen to share your story with the attorney and potentially hire them. The attorney should express this to you verbally. You should feel like your case matters to the attorney.

Step Two: Read The Personal Injury Attorney’s Reviews

Unless you have a direct referral from a friend or colleague who worked with this attorney or law firm, we believe the reviews for an attorney are reflective of the service you will receive. This is step 2 in how to choose a personal injury attorney. You need to be careful here, because like in any business there will be a disgruntled client or two—those individuals seem more inclined to leave a review, as we all know. If you like, you can read Our Reviews.

if you look at the reviews overall, you should see a trend. Are people complimenting the law firm on their communication? Are clients indicating they were made to feel important and were kept abreast of the developments in their case? These things matter and your experience will probably mirror the reviews your read.

Step Three: Trust Your Gut Instinct

If you have a good feeling about an attorney or law firm, it’s probably based on the interaction you had with that firm. They must have done something to provide you with comfort or support, during that brief consultation. If so, that’s meaningful and we encourage you to trust your instinct. While this may be the first time you’ve chosen a personal injury law firm, it’s not the first time you’ve been a customer in a service industry. And don’t forget, the law is a service industry (Whether attorneys want to admit it or not). So, if you get a good feeling, and if you’re not ignoring a major red flag, we say go with your gut.

What About the Results?

We know what you’re thinking—we didn’t mention investigating the results the law firm has achieved. We also didn’t mention asking the attorney to predict what they might be able to get for you, for your case. We may be wrong, but our belief is that most personal injury law firms with a good reputation (reviews, etc.) are going to do a good job for you. They will successfully identify Medical Payments coverage, negotiate Medical Liens, and submit a good Demand Letter for you. This includes getting the best results they can for you. If that’s true, once you feel comfortable that the firm or attorney is reputable, it makes sense to focus on how the relationship will develop with the attorney.

Speak With A Personal Injury Attorney Today

If you would like to speak with a Charlotte personal injury attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. And if you choose not to work with us, THAT’S OK! You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

 

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What Do Personal Injury Lawyers Charge?

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What Do Personal Injury Lawyers Charge?

In determining what personal injury lawyers charge, you have to look to the specific engagement letter or contract for each personal injury lawyer or law firm. Most personal injury lawyers charge a fee known as a Contingency Fee. This means that the lawyer or law firm only gets paid if they are able to reach a settlement or jury verdict in your favor. Then, the lawyer will be paid in accordance with the contract you signed with them.

What Is The Contingency Fee?

For most personal injury law firms, the contingency fee is one-third of the gross settlement proceeds. So, one question is what do personal injury lawyers charge if you win your case? The answer depends on how much you won. For instance, if you reach a settlement for $30,000, the personal injury lawyer’s fee will be $10,000. In addition to the one-third, the lawyer’s contract will typically call for the law firm to be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses. Provided the claim was settled prior to being filed as a lawsuit, those expenses are usually minimal and amount to small fees paid to third parties to obtain medical records and medical bills.

Is A Contingency Fee Good For The Client?

We like a contingency fee for several reasons. First, it gives the client access to legal representation without having to write a check to a lawyer. Second, if the lawyer is only going to get paid if they are able to successfully settle your case, it’s safe to assume the lawyer believes in your case. In other words, if the lawyer is willing to represent you without payment upfront, they believe they will ultimately be able to recover something for you. For the client, this takes the pain and mystery out of paying a lawyer by the hour for a case you may never win.

Additionally, at some point during negotiations, your personal injury lawyer will probably tell you when they believe you should accept the current settlement offer, or reject the offer and file a lawsuit. Once again, because the lawyer only gets paid if you get paid, you can trust the lawyer’s judgment. A lawyer working and getting paid by the hour could potentially continue working on your case even though they did not feel you would prevail. We believe this instills inherent trust in the lawyer-client relationship as we move forward with each case.

Why Are Lawyers Willing To Work For A Contingency Fee?

Lawyers know that most people do not have money set aside to pay for a lawyer to fight for them in a personal injury case. This doesn’t mean the injured party doesn’t deserve representation. The contingency fee was most likely conceived of to help address this catch-22 situation. What do personal injury lawyers charge if you lose? Well, usually nothing. That is the risk the lawyer takes when deciding whether to represent a client in a personal injury claim. There will be plenty of cases where the law firm works diligently and is unable to recover anything for the client. Fortunately, those cases which do work out for both the client and the lawyer tend to balance out the equation.

Who Gets The Remainder Of The Settlement?

Your personal injury lawyer’s fee is subtracted from the gross settlement. Then, any negotiated medical bills and medical liens are deducted. The remainder is yours. Your personal injury lawyer will discuss all of the numbers with you before agreeing to a settlement. This way, you can be sure of exactly how much you will receive from the settlement, before agreeing to settle the case.

Speak With A Charlotte Personal Injury Lawyer Today

If you would like to speak with an attorney about your personal injury case, we’re here to help. The call is free and you will come away with a much better understanding of your options. You can reach us at 704.749.7747 or click to request a FREE CASE EVALUATION, and we will be in touch shortly.

Further Reading

If this article was helpful, you may find other helpful articles on our Personal Injury Blog. Thank you for visiting the website—we hope it has been helpful.

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