The Benefits of a Contingency Fee

The Average American Citizen’s Key to Justice

A contingency fee is an agreement where the client does not have to pay money upfront.  In exchange, the injury lawyer agrees to provide legal services and advance expenses for clients for a percentage of the award the attorney achieves for the client.  All out-of-pocket costs related to the lawsuit are carried by the injury lawyer and are only recovered when the injury lawyer wins a monetary award for the client.  Contingency Fees are limited by each state’s ethical rules.

The Contingency Fee system is often criticized as encouraging needless lawsuits. In the 1980′s, big business and the insurance industry began to attack Contingency Fee agreements with injury lawyers claiming the Contingency Fee system results in frivolous lawsuits. Nothing could be further from the truth.  The Contingency Fee system is vital in leveling the playing field for American civil justice.

The Contingency Fee system is the average American citizen’s key to justice.  The great majority of everyday Americans cannot afford to pay the hourly rates for professional legal services.  Without the option of hiring an injury lawyer on a Contingency Fee basis, most Americans would be denied justice, no matter how just their cause.

The Philadelphia Injury Lawyer accepts the enormous risk of not getting paid for hours of work and losing large sums of expenses they advance for the client in the prosecution of the client’s case under contingency fee agreements.  Accepting these risks discourages the injury lawyer from prosecuting a case without merit.

With a Contingency Fee arrangement, the interests of the injury lawyer and client are aligned toward the goal of a just outcome for the client.  That is not the case with hourly fee agreements where the injury attorneys stop getting paid when the case is resolved for the client.  Limiting Contingency Fee agreements only benefit those that can afford to pay an hourly rate to a Philadelphia Injury Lawyer.  Don’t let them throw away your key to justice.