How Much Do Injury and Accident Lawyers Charge?
Almost all of them charge a contingency fee, which is a percentage of what they recover for you, rather than charging you an hourly rate. In California the common structure is roughly one third if the claim settles before a lawsuit is filed and around 40% after. At Westwood Law the fee is 33-1/3% before a lawsuit is filed and 40% after. You pay nothing up front, and if there is no recovery there is no fee.
That is the headline, and it is the part most people already know. The percentage is not really where your money moves, though. What matters just as much is how the percentage interacts with case costs, and what else has a claim on the settlement before you see any of it. Both of those are explained below, because they are the parts that are easy to misunderstand and expensive to get wrong.
What is a contingency fee?
You sign an agreement that gives the firm a stated share of whatever it recovers for you, whether that comes by settlement, arbitration award, or verdict. There is no retainer, no hourly billing, and no invoices arriving while the case is going on. If the case recovers nothing, you owe no fee. The firm is effectively betting its own time on the outcome, which is also why firms turn down cases they do not think they can win.
The practical effect is that you do not need money to hire a personal injury lawyer. That is the entire reason the arrangement exists.
Why does the percentage go up when a lawsuit is filed?
Because the work changes shape completely.
A claim handled before a lawsuit is records, a demand letter, and negotiation. A filed case means pleadings, written discovery, depositions, hiring experts, a medical examination by a doctor the other side chooses, motions, a settlement conference, and possibly a trial. That is commonly a year or more of additional work and several times the money laid out, all carried by the firm until the case resolves.
Which means the decision to file a lawsuit is a real decision and not a formality. It should be a conversation you are part of, and you should understand what it changes before it happens.
Fees and costs are two different things
This is the single most common point of confusion, so it is worth being precise.
The fee (aka legal fee) is the contingency percentage paid to the lawyer. Costs are third party expenses paid out to people who are not the law firm. The firm normally advances these costs and is reimbursed out of the recovery at the end.
Here are some examples of different costs that may be incurred. All dollar figures are estimates, and the real costs may differ.:
| Cost | Order of magnitude | When it shows up |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic collision report | Under $50 | Week one |
| Medical records and imaging retrieval, per provider | $25 to $500 | Pre-suit |
| Treating physician narrative report | $500 to $3,000 | Pre-suit |
| Filing the complaint and serving it | Several hundred dollars | At filing |
| Court reporter and deposition transcripts, each | $500 to $2,500 | Discovery |
| Mediation, your share | $1,500 to $5,000 | Pre-trial |
| Accident reconstruction expert | $5,000 to $25,000 | Contested liability |
| Medical or economic expert, through trial | $5,000 to $20,000 each | Trial workup |
Is the fee calculated before or after costs come out?
California requires a contingency fee agreement to state how costs will affect both the fee and your recovery. In general, legal fees for most personal injury law firms are calculated as a percentage of the total gross recovery, that is, before costs have been deducted.
What else does your fee agreement have to say?
California sets real requirements here, and they exist for your protection:
- It has to be in writing, signed by both you and the attorney, and you have to be given a copy when you sign it.
- It has to state the rate, and explain how costs affect both the fee and what you receive.
- Unless it is a medical malpractice case, the document itself has to tell you that the fee is not set by law and is negotiable between you and the attorney.
- If the agreement does not meet these requirements, you can void it, and the attorney is then limited to a reasonable fee rather than the percentage.
Where California caps the percentage
In medical malpractice cases, the fee is set by state law rather than by agreement. It cannot exceed 25% of the recovery if the case resolves before a complaint or arbitration demand is filed, or 33% after. An attorney can ask a court to allow more and has to show good cause for it.
For all other personal injury claims, including car accident claims, the percentage is whatever the written agreement says it is.
The part people forget: liens and reimbursement claims
Anyone who paid for your treatment, or who treated you on the promise of being paid out of the settlement, may have a claim on the money:
- A health plan asking to be reimbursed for what it paid out
- Medicare or Medi-Cal
- A hospital that treated you after the crash
- Providers who treated you on a lien rather than billing insurance
- Your own medical payments coverage, under some policies
Most of these are negotiable, and often substantially so. A good personal injury lawyer spends significant time and energy negotiating these costs down on your behalf to increase your net recovery. This isubject is covered in more detail in how a personal injury lawyer increases your settlement.
Two questions worth asking out loud
If we recover nothing, do I owe the costs? Firms handle this differently, and the answer belongs in the written agreement. In the case of Westwood Law, the answer is "no." If you don't recover anything, you won't have to pay any of the costs.
What if I want to change lawyers in the middle of the case? You can. You are not locked in. The first firm will generally have a claim for the value of the work it already did, but that usually gets worked out between the two firms. In other words, you will not need to pay double. You pay the same contingency fee, which is split between the two firms.
Talk to a UCLA-trained attorney directly.
