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Some areas of injury law in Illinois have caps on attorney fees. Medical malpractice lawyer fees can not exceed 33 1/3%. Illinois workers’ compensation attorneys can not receive more than 20% of what they recover and in bigger cases that percentage is lower. If you are suing the Federal government under the Federal Tort Claim Act (FTCA), lawyers fees are capped at 20-25% of the recovery depending on whether there is a trial or not. In fact if your contract states you will receive more than that, it is a crime by the lawyer.
One area of law that does not have a cap on it is lawsuits for personal injury. These include cases like car accidents, slip and falls, truck crashes and general negligence lawsuits. As a result we get contacted a lot by people who are considering hiring a lawyer to see what we think about the attorney fee being charged.
Illinois personal injury attorneys can charge what they want for their services. The only caveat to that are state ethical rules that the fee must be reasonable. Sadly, many of them will ask you to agree as much as they think they can get away with and they will hope that you will not challenge it.
We see a lot of contracts where the attorney says something like this:
1/3 if settled before trial; 40% if the case goes to trial; 50% if there is an appeal.
In my opinion, for most cases, that is excessive. The 1/3 is relatively standard and appropriate. 40% if you go to trial and certainly 50% if there is an appeal seems like a money grab to me. I personally would not agree to that type of contract. I would only agree to 1/3 unless there are very unusual circumstances involved or some incredible effort is involved.
I have also seen contracts where the fee goes to 40% if a lawsuit has to be filed and 45% if there is a trial. That is wrong in my opinion.
Potentially going to trial is the lawyer’s job. It would be great if a case could settle before then, but you need a firm that is willing to take cases to trial when needed to get the maximum recovery.
I find these higher fees especially bothersome when the attorney knows that there is not much insurance available. If you get in a car accident with someone who has a $100,000 insurance policy, the most you can likely recover is a $100,000. If the lawyer is taking 40%, that is almost $7,000 out of your pocket when all is said and done.
There are two points that I think people really should be aware of when it comes to Illinois personal injury attorney fees. The first is that you do not have to agree to these terms and can always seek other opinions or ask them to not go above 1/3. In fact when injuries are catastrophic, some firms will cut their fee to 30%, especially if there is good insurance such as being hit by a commercial vehicle.
The second point is that you have to remember that some cases are simply worth more in the hands of some lawyers as compared to others. If you are hit by a semi truck and end up needing a couple of surgeries (or something worse like death or paralysis), that case is likely worth more than $1 million. With some firms the best outcome might be $2 million which sounds great. But if another firm could take the exact same case and get $10 million, they are the one for you. Even if the second firm charged 40% (which they should not do), you would still end up with much more money.
If you have questions about an Illinois personal injury contract or want our opinion as to which law firm is best for your case, please contact us any time. No attorney pays us to recommend them. We will give you the same advice we would provide friends or family if they were in the same situation as you.
