HOW TO HIRE AN ATTORNEY

Contingency fee agreements as a method of financing personal injury and wrongful death, and some employment law, cases are the most convenient and least expensive way of hiring a personal injury attorney. Although much maligned in recent years, for giving the occasionally unworthy plaintiff access to the courts, the contingency fee method is usually the only way legitimate injury victims will obtain justice in our court system.

Granted, there have been abuses of the tort system in the past. These included the occasional frivolous lawsuit allowed into the courts and, but for contingency fee agreements, never would have seen the light of day. Those days are pretty much over. The cost of gaining access to our court system in civil lawsuits has become so expensive, the rule rather than the exception is that only serious lawsuits are being filed. While there is no way to rid the system of every frivolous lawsuit, it is more unlikely today than ever before that a frivolous, undeserving lawsuit will be filed. 

That brings us back to the question of how should you finance a wrongful death or serious personal injury case. These lawsuits include the type this law firm, RIZIK & RIZIK, handles, including automobile accidents, wrongful death, large truck accidents, road design defects, serious dog bites, labor and employment and other serious personal injury litigation. The contingency fee method is utilized almost exclusively by personal injury victims, because when they visit the office of RIZIK & RIZIK, they are financially vulnerable and usually unable to afford an attorney. 

The contingency fee method works as follows in Michigan: upon resolution of a case, by settlement or judgment, the attorney will receive the accumulated litigation costs plus one-third (1/3) of the compensation for attorney fees. You, the client, will receive the remaining amount as compensation. Litigation costs include private investigators, medical and school records, accident reconstructionists, bio-mechanical engineers, economists, computer assisted legal research, court filing fees, deposition costs, long distance telephone charges, expert witness fees, copying, postage and other charges associated with seeing your case to its proper conclusion. During the course of your case, your attorney should pay these costs, then seek reimbursement when your case is resolved. As a matter of law, at all times whether the case is successful or not, you, the client, are legally responsible for the costs of litigation. 

Importantly, by law, under the contingency fee agreement, your lawyer may not have more than his costs plus the one-third (1/3) attorney fee. The remaining two-thirds (2/3) after costs are deducted goes to you as compensation for economic and non-economic injuries. 

For example, assume for the sake of argument, and without passing judgment on your case, that your matter is resolved for $100,000.00, and litigation costs totaled $10,000.00. The $10,000.00 is deducted from $100,000.00 immediately and returned to the attorney as litigation costs. Of the remaining $90,000.00, one-third (or $30,000.00) is paid to the attorney in fees. The remaining $60,000.00 goes to you as compensation in this hypothetical situation. 

The contingency fee method is not the only method available for retaining an attorney in such a case. Also available are the "hourly retainer" and "per-job" methods. The hourly retainer method with RIZIK & RIZIK includes a non-refundable, minimum, advance fee, and fees of $200.00 per hour, depending on the case, for attorney time, plus costs, to be billed on a monthly basis and charged against the initial fee. When the initial fees are reduced to -$0-, you will begin regular monthly payments at the hourly rate as in any civil case.

The per-job method at RIZIK & RIZIK works as follows: if you and the attorney can work out an arrangement in advance on a cost and fee structure, then RIZIK & RIZIK will ask for one-half (1/2) of the fee up front and the other half, plus costs, when your case concludes.

When deciding on the method of financing your case, you must look at the advantages and disadvantages of each. One advantage of the contingency fee method is that there are no up-front costs or fees to be paid in order to begin the process of investigating, making a claim or filing a lawsuit. Another advantage is that no matter how many times you need to speak with your attorney, or how much work your attorney performs on your case, your fee is not increased above the legal limit. A disadvantage is that you may pay more attorney fees through the contingency method than through the hourly method, depending on how soon your case is resolved. 

With the hourly method of retainer, there is not only up-front money to retain the attorney, but also monthly fees and costs which must be paid. This would be a disadvantage if you are disabled from work due to the accident. An advantage may be that you pay less in attorney fees in the long run by hiring the attorney on an hourly basis rather than on a contingency basis. 

The advantage of a per-job retention is similar to that of the hourly, in that you may pay less than in the contingency fee arrangement. A disadvantage is trying to determine in advance of the case what that fee would be, and the necessity of paying half of that fee up-front. This can work against you, especially if your injury is serious or the person who died in the accident was the family wage earner. 

When weighing the advantages and disadvantages, almost every injured person and his family retain a personal injury/wrongful death attorney on the contingency fee method because its advantages outweigh its disadvantages and the advantages of the other methods. 

At RIZIK & RIZIK, the added advantage of hiring us on the contingency fee method is that any probate work directly related to the injury or death case through the time your litigation is resolved is done at no additional attorney fee – costs only. However, any probate work not directly related to the injury or death case itself will be billed separately. Also, all appeals directly related to the injury or death case are done at no additional attorney fee – costs only. There are very few other law firms that will handle additional work like this for no additional attorney fee. 

The final added advantage is that in automobile accident cases, RIZIK & RIZIK, will handle PIP benefits’ claims at no additional attorney fee, unless it becomes necessary to file suit against the insurance company. Then we will have you sign a separate fee agreement, but seek to have the attorney fees paid by the insurance company at a later date. 

It is critical to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each retainer method, and decide what is best for you. We will be happy to discuss this in more detail, so please feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience, by phone, fax, or email.