We’ve all seen the television commercials or heard the radio ads where an attorney (or an actor playing an attorney) says “we don’t get paid until you get paid”. What does that mean?
When you hire Pentlarge Law Group to represent you for your personal injury claim, you enter into a written contingency fee agreement with our law firm. You don’t have to pay cash, write a check, or give us a credit card to retain our services. In a contingent fee arrangement, our law firm agrees to accept a fixed percentage of the recovery, which is the amount finally paid to the client either through settlement negotiations or jury trial. If we settle your personal injury claim with your authority (or if we win the case at trial) our legal fee comes out of the gross settlement funds paid by insurance company for the at-fault party or the money damages awarded to you by the jury.
Some personal injury law firms give the client the option of being charged hourly for legal services instead of on a contingency fee basis. With hourly fees, the client pays a fixed hourly rate for the attorney’s time spent on the case. Hourly billing puts more of the financial risk for the legal matter with you, the client. No matter the outcome of your case, you are responsible to pay your attorney for the time spent on your case. Often, the lawyer requires the client pay a significant amount of money up front to retain the attorney’s services and billing starts as soon as the attorney begins working on your legal matter.
Working on a contingency fee basis puts more of the financial risk with the attorney. Pentlarge Law Group typically does not work on an hourly basis. We believe that a contingency fee payment agreement is in our clients’ best interest. Therefore, we do not get paid legal fees unless and until your personal injury claim is settled through negotiation or won in court.
When you hire Pentlarge Law Group you are not only hiring a highly experienced and professional team of lawyers and professionals to prosecute your personal injury claim, you are also gaining a business partner who is charged with the task of getting as much value for your claim that the evidence and persuasive argument can bear. Pentlarge Law Group is a for-profit law firm. Why is that important? Because we take great pride in making sure our team fully develops your claim to maximize your financial recovery. The higher the value we settle your claim for, the more money we put into your account and into our account. If you win, we win.
We choose our client’s carefully and you should choose your attorney carefully. A contingency fee agreement is just one tool that we use to ensure that you can focus all of your efforts on getting back to pre-injury physical status without further burdening your financially during the pendency of your legal claim.
Should you have any questions regarding contingency fees please contact us at (907) 276-1919. We look forward to assisting you with your personal injury claim.
For more information see the American Bar Association at: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/resources/law_issues_for_consumers/lawyerfees_contingent.html
And the Alaska Bar Association at: https://alaskabar.org/for-the-public/how-to-select-a-lawyer/