Nothing up front. In an injury case the lawyer is paid a percentage of what you recover rather than an hourly rate, and if there is no recovery there is no fee.
What that percentage is, is not fixed by California law. It is negotiable, and the law requires your lawyer to put that in writing and tell you so. If you have been quoted a rate as though it were a standard set by somebody else, that is not how it works.
This article is by Accident Lawyer of California, P.C., the personal injury practice of Aryan Aliakbarzadeh, Esq. in Northridge, California, admitted to the State Bar of California in October 2012. It describes how these cases work in California; it is not advice about yours.
How a contingency fee works Link to this section
You sign an agreement that entitles the lawyer to an agreed share of whatever the case produces, whether that is a settlement or a judgment. You pay nothing to start and nothing while it runs.
The lawyer carries the risk of losing, which is why the percentage exists at all. It is also why a firm will decline a case it does not think it can win, and why a straight answer about the strength of your claim at the first conversation is worth more than enthusiasm.
This is a different question from whether you need a lawyer at all. Plenty of small claims are settled by the driver and the adjuster with nobody else involved.
The percentage is negotiable, and the law says the agreement has to say so Link to this section
California regulates contingency fee agreements under Business and Professions Code section 6147, and the requirements are specific.
The agreement must be in writing, and you must be given a duplicate copy, signed by both the lawyer and you, at the time you sign it. Not posted later.
It must state the rate you and the lawyer have agreed.
It must explain how the costs and disbursements of pursuing or settling the claim affect both the fee and your recovery.
It must state the extent, if any, to which you could be required to pay the lawyer for related matters falling outside the contingency agreement.
And for the kinds of claims this firm handles, it must state that the fee is not set by law and is negotiable. That sentence is not boilerplate. It is in the statute because the legislature wanted you to know you were allowed to discuss it.
Section 6147 subdivision (b) gives that requirement teeth. If the agreement does not comply, it is voidable at your option, and the lawyer is then entitled only to a reasonable fee rather than the agreed percentage.
Fees and costs are two different things, and this is where people get caught Link to this section
The fee is the lawyer’s percentage. Costs are the money spent running the case. Court filing fees, obtaining medical records, deposition transcripts, expert witnesses, investigators, service of process.
Those are separate amounts and they come out of the recovery separately. A firm advertising that there is no fee unless the case is won is telling you about the fee. It is not, by itself, telling you what happens to the costs if the case does not succeed.
That is not a trick, and the answer varies legitimately between firms. Some absorb costs on a case that loses. Some do not. What section 6147 requires is that your agreement explain how costs affect the fee and your recovery, so the answer is in the document you sign.
So the question to ask is short. If this case does not succeed, do I owe anything at all, including costs? Then check that the agreement says what you were told.
The order the deductions happen in changes what you get Link to this section
This is the term people never ask about and it moves more money than the percentage does.
Take a case where the fee is a third and the costs of running it are real. If the percentage is calculated on the gross recovery and the costs come out of what is left, you absorb all of the costs. If the costs come off the top first and the percentage is calculated on the remainder, the lawyer effectively shares them with you. Same rate, same recovery, different amount reaching you.
Neither order is improper and both are used. What section 6147 requires is that the agreement explain how the costs and disbursements affect both the fee and your recovery, which means the answer is in the document and you are entitled to understand it before signing.
So ask it directly. Is the percentage calculated before or after costs come out. Then find the sentence in the agreement that says so.
There is a third deduction people do not expect Link to this section
After the fee and the costs there can be a further category, which is repayment to whoever paid for your medical treatment while the case was running.
Depending on how your care was funded, a health plan, a medical payments provision on your own auto policy, or a provider who treated you on the understanding of being paid from the settlement may each have a right to be repaid out of the recovery. That is not the lawyer’s fee and it is not a cost of the case. It is a separate claim on the money.
This is worth asking about early rather than at the end, because it affects what the resolution actually looks like for you, and because how your treatment is paid for in the first months can change the size of that deduction later. It is also part of why what a claim is worth and what reaches you are two different numbers.
What to ask before you sign anything Link to this section
Ask what the rate is, and whether it changes if the case has to be filed or tried. Many agreements step up at those points, which is normal, but you should know where the steps are.
Ask who will actually handle the case. Not which firm. Which person, and whether you will be speaking to the lawyer or to a case manager.
Ask whether the case might be referred or shared with another firm. If a fee is going to be divided with lawyers outside the firm, California requires written disclosure of that division and your written consent to it. You are entitled to know before it happens, not after.
Ask what happens to the costs if the case does not succeed, and get the answer in the agreement rather than in conversation.
Ask for the agreement to read before you sign it. A firm that will not give you a copy to read is telling you something, and section 6147 requires you to receive one at signing in any event.
Take the copy home. There is no injury claim in California with a deadline so short that it cannot survive an afternoon of you reading the contract.
If you want a straight answer about what your case involves and what it would cost, Aryan Aliakbarzadeh, Esq. will go through both with you before anything is signed. He handles injury claims across Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Call or text 818-718-2522, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or use the contact page.