The fee charged by a personal injury lawyer comes out of the client’s final settlement, or, if the case goes to trial, out of the client’s damage award. Specific provisions can get attached to that simple arrangement.

Typically, the lawyer and client agree on the percent of the settlement/award that should go to the personal injury lawyer in Clovis. Most lawyers seek 33% of a negotiated settlement. If a claimant has chosen to file a lawsuit, the lawyer’s cut could increase to 40%. The size of that cut might increase further, if the case were to proceed to trial.

Lawyers take care of certain expenses that emerge, during pursuit of a client’s case.

• The need to pay for access to medical records
• Payment for access to a police report
• Witness fees
• Court filing fees
• Postage fees
• Payments to an investigator
• Payments to experts
• Costs associated with a deposition
• Cost for obtaining transcripts
• Money spent on trial exhibits

The lawyer’s money gets repaid upon payment of the client’s settlement or damage award.

Issues that could develop upon delivery of the anticipated check

Normally, that check gets sent to the plaintiff’s lawyer. The lawyer takes out the amount agreed to by the client and sends the balance to the same client. During that same period of time, the money paid by the lawyer for expenses gets repaid, using funds from the client’s check.

Sometimes a client disputes the charges placed upon him or her by the hired attorney. When that happens, the disputed amount gets placed in a trust account. Once that action has been taken, the disputing parties (lawyer and client) can work to resolve their dispute. Another issued that could arise would relate to the client’s name on the check that gets sent from the lawyer’s office. Sometimes a client has had a personal relationship with the attorney that represents him or her, during a personal injury case. Thus, the client might fail to provide the attorney’s office with the name on the client’s bank account.

In other words, the check issued by the attorney’s office might have the client’s nick name or informal name on it, rather than the one that is on the same client’s bank account. That can create an awkward situation. Smart clients make sure that their lawyer knows what name to put on the mailed check.

Of course, lawyers’ policies do not rule out the need to write a second check, one that has the correct name. In other words, no client should hesitate to request a check that has been made payable to the person that has agreed to the hired lawyer’s contingency fee, and all the provisions that have become attached to it.