What Is a Contingency Fee in Personal Injury and Workers’ Comp Cases?

 Posted on December 20, 2024 in Workers' Compensation

Whether you are injured at work or elsewhere, it is often possible for you to reclaim compensation for your damages. You might consider hiring a Fort Collins, CO lawyer to represent you for your accident claim, but do not think you can afford the legal fees.

When you choose Hoggatt Law Office, P.C., we take personal injury and workers’ compensation cases on a contingency fee basis. Many people who do not have legal experience may not be familiar with that term. Part of our responsibilities include ensuring that you fully understand every aspect of your case, including what various legal terms mean.

What Is a Contingency Fee Basis?

Most people injured in accidents face a significant financial strain from medical bills, property damage, and lost income. They may struggle to feed their families, leaving no funds to hire an attorney. We understand how heavy your financial burden is, so we generally bill our clients on a contingency fee basis. With this structure, you do not pay us any upfront fees.

For personal injury cases, we usually agree to collect one-third of the damages we recover for you. You will not owe us that fee if we do not win your case. We will provide you with a copy of our signed agreement. However, pursuing your claim requires several expenses, such as investigations. We typically pay these expenses ourselves to ease your financial stress, and we may ask you for reimbursement regardless of your case’s outcome.

When we assist with workers’ compensation claims, the structure and requirements are similar. However, Colorado law sets a maximum contingency fee for workers’ comp claims at 25 percent. That means that if, for example, we recover $100,000 of benefits for you, we will not take more than $25,000 for our legal fees.

Other Need-to-Know Legal Term Definitions

During your claims process, you will probably encounter several other unfamiliar terms, such as:

• Fault: Responsibility for causing an accident, injuries, and damages

• Liability: Responsibility for paying damages

• Negligence: Careless behaviors that contribute to fault

• Damages: Financial and intangible losses; the compensation or reimbursement you could receive associated with those losses

• Statute of limitations: The deadline for filing a civil lawsuit

• Settlement: The funds you could receive from the liable insurance company through an offer or negotiations without involving a trial

• Maximum medical improvement: The point at which your injuries are unlikely to heal further, even with additional medical treatment

• Pain and suffering: The emotional and psychological impacts on your life caused by your accident

• Modified comparative negligence: Colorado’s laws governing whether you are eligible to collect damages in a personal injury case if you share fault for causing your accident, including limitations on the percentage of your damages you could receive

We try to explain all aspects of your case clearly. If we use a term you do not understand, please ask us to explain.

Discuss Your Case With an Experienced Larimer County, CO Personal Injury Attorney

At Hoggatt Law Office, P.C., we want to ease your stress and financial burden by offering straightforward explanations and contingency fee billing. Call us at 970-225-2190 or contact us online to schedule your free case review with our skilled Fort Collins, CO workers’ comp lawyer.