How Much Do Lawyers Take From an Injury Settlement?
Personal Injury Lawyers Settlement Fees in NH
If you cannot afford to hire an experienced personal injury attorney up front for your personal injury case, many attorneys will represent you on contingency if they feel as though you have a claim they can successfully take to court. When this happens, you don’t pay for legal representation as the case progresses, but you do pay for your lawyer’s time and expertise once it has concluded. Should your case be settled in your favor, your attorney will be entitled to a percentage of the settlement. But exactly how much can you expect them to take?
One Third of Your Settlement
One of the most common amounts an attorney will take from your settlement rate is one third, or 33%, of the final amount. Skilled legal help is not cheap, and it takes quite a few hours to successfully put together and argue a case. Your attorney works hard to ensure that you receive fair compensation, in other words, but they also must be compensated for their time. Most contingency plans will leave claimants with two thirds of their settlement and their attorney with one third. Please note that this is one third of the gross settlement, not the net settlement.
Gross Settlement
Put simply, the gross settlement amount is the amount of money you are awarded by the courts, before anything is taken out of it. Think of it like your gross income before taxes are removed – you technically make a specific amount, but what you actually take home every week is less than that number.
Net Settlement
The net settlement amount is the compensation that remains after things like medical bills, expert witness fees, and copy costs are removed. Perhaps the gross settlement is $10,000, as an example, but medical bills and other court expenses came to $2,000. Your attorney is entitled to one third of the gross settlement, which would be around $3,000 in this instance. You would be entitled to about $7,000, however keep in mind that you have $2,000 to be subtracted from that amount. That leaves you with about $5,000 net settlement.
For more information about how personal injury settlements work and how much you can expect to pay your attorney, reach out to Richard Monteith today! With decades of experience in personal injury law, he’s ready to answer any and all of your questions.