Except for large businesses and wealthy individuals, most potential plaintiffs
do not have the money to pay the costs associated with litigation. There are
third-party payers in law, but they are insurance companies, which usually
limit their payments to defense lawyers. In the United States, this has led to
entrepreneurial law, where plaintiffs' attorneys become their clients' partners
to earn their fees. In other words, the attorney loans the client the value of
his or her legal services in return for a percentage of the money obtained for
the client.
Since few people have the resources to hire an attorney on an hourly basis,
persons with valid personal injury claims would be denied their day in court if
this were the only payment system. This would be an injustice. The solution
adopted in the United States is the contingent fee contract. In this
arrangement, attorneys take a percentage of the winnings as their fee. The
clients make their claims, the attorneys have a chance to earn a fee, and the
contingency aspect gives attorneys added incentive to work hard for their
clients.
The contingent fee contract provides that the fees will be paid out of the
money received from the defendant when a case is won or settled. Most contracts
also provide that the attorney will loan the client the money to pay the
out-of-pocket expenses of the case. Although the money for these expenses is
styled as a loan, few attorneys attempt to collect them from the client if the
recovery is less than the expenses in the case. The attorney's fee is based on
a percentage of the gross recovery, without regard to the number of hours
actually worked on the case. The fees are typically staged--perhaps 33 percent
if the case is settled without filing a lawsuit, 40 percent after a lawsuit is
filed, and 45 percent if the case must be defended on appeal. Most cases are
settled after the filing of a lawsuit but before the rendering of a judgment by
a court. Under this schedule, the attorney would receive 40 percent of the
settlement and would be reimbursed for expenses out of the client's share.
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