Contingency Fees

How does a contingency fee case work?

Most of our cases are a contingency fee basis.  A contingency fee case means the client pays nothing at all unless the lawyer wins the client money. Once you receive money from either a settlement or verdict, contingency lawyers receive a certain percentage of that settlement or verdict for our services. If your lawsuit is unsuccessful, you will not owe any attorney fees. This allows the plaintiff to reap the rewards without risk of having to pay for a loss.

Catastrophic injury and complex business lawsuits can be expensive to bring. There are court costs, expert fees, and general business management fees. The way a contingency fee case works, is the attorney or law firm will pay for all of these fees associated with researching, filing, and prosecuting your claim. You owe $0 out of pocket to bring the case.

If the attorney successfully recovers money for you, they will typically take an agreed upon percentage of the recovery, recollect the costs associated with bringing the case (court costs and expert fees), and then you receive the remainder of the settlement or verdict.

Typically, if a jury or judge rules in favor of the defendant and you lose the case, you do not owe any money to the attorney for the costs they incurred in bringing the case (court costs or expert costs) or for the attorney’s time. Chase has never lost a personal injury case.

We also work with our clients and prospective clients to develop competitive fee arrangements that fit that particular clients’ needs.  For example, in some of our complex business litigation cases or antitrust cases, we may work on a tiered-fee system or a hybrid contingency-billable system, all depending on what the client prefers and works for them.