How much does a personal injury lawyer cost?

Follow the money through a personal injury case and it moves at exactly one point: after the case settles or wins, not before. Nothing changes hands at signing, nothing changes hands while the case runs, and the only payment happens once there’s actually money on the table. That’s what a contingency fee means in practice, and here’s how it plays out from your side of the desk.

At signing: an agreement, not a bill

The document you sign at the start spells out the fee arrangement, but it doesn’t charge you anything. It sets the percentage the attorney earns if your case recovers money, and that percentage is agreed in writing up front, not decided later or left open to interpretation. Read it closely before you sign, since this is the one document that governs everything that follows.

While the case is open: the firm carries the costs

Building a real claim isn’t free. Medical records, expert reviews, court filing fees: these add up while the case is moving, and under a contingency arrangement, the firm typically advances that money rather than billing you for it as it happens. You aren’t writing checks to keep your own case alive.

At settlement: the fee and the advanced costs both come out

Once a case resolves, the settlement doesn’t arrive whole in your account. The agreed percentage and any costs the firm advanced along the way both come out of the recovery first, and the written agreement says in what order that happens. That’s exactly why how a case gets valued from the start matters: it’s the number everything else gets carved out of.

If the case loses: no fee, but check the costs clause

If a contingency case doesn’t recover anything, you don’t owe a fee. What happens to the costs the firm advanced along the way is a separate question, and agreements handle it differently, so it’s worth reading that specific clause and asking about it directly rather than assuming.

What hourly billing would look like instead

Some legal work still runs on an hourly rate, paid regardless of outcome. For most people dealing with medical bills and lost income after a crash, that setup would put a real attorney out of reach before the case ever got started, which is a big part of why contingency became the standard for this kind of claim.

Every personal injury claim is different, and the exact percentage varies by attorney and by case, so ask directly and get it in writing before you commit to anything. The FAQ page covers more of what people ask about cost and next steps.