Most personal injury attorneys operate with an agreement known as a contingency fee.
My attempt here is to educate American citizens as to what a contingency fee agreement is, and whether or not it is good for America as a whole.
Though many of us have heard of the term before, let's start with just a basic overview of what a contingency fee agreement is.
The idea behind a contingency fee in injury law is that a client will only pay the lawyer for their services of the lawyer are successful in prosecuting the case.
By successful, I mean that they receive a cash reward for their client.
At that point, assuming a cash reward has been achieved, the client usually pays a portion of the award to the lawyer.
Thus, the client really never pays out of his or her pocket for the lawyers services.
The main benefit of these types of agreements is that it avoids a class system in personal injury cases.
By class system, I mean that absent this agreement poorer clients would be less able to pay for expensive lawyers.
This sort of levels the playing field, allowing a client with any income to hire successful personal injury attorneys.
This is no small matter either.
Injury attorneys are the main method we have to carry out a case when we feel we have been injured by the negligence of other persons.
Considering this a constitutionally protected right, contingency agreements allow all of us to assert our rights in a relatively equal manner.
Hopefully, this has cleared up any confusion over contingency fees.