Most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, meaning that injured plaintiffs will not need to pay any money up front for their services, nor will they have to pay any money until — and only if — a favorable monetary recovery is made.
If a favorable recovery is made, then the legal fees will be taken out of the settlement or award money that the plaintiff receives in the case.
Because legal fees are quite costly, a common claim included in most car accident cases relates to attorneys’ fees. Sometimes, plaintiffs can recover money as compensation for the attorneys’ fees and litigation costs they incurred during the course of pursuing the case.
Attorney time is a fairly straightforward item to track. The attorney might bill on an hourly basis, or he or she might bill as a percentage fee taken out of the total amount of the recovery. In addition to attorneys’ fees, however, are litigation costs and these might include a lot of different itemized costs.
Those costs could include photocopying, court costs, filing fees, postage, telephone costs, messenger fees, paralegal time, research related costs, deposition and court reporter costs, faxes, staff and secretarial time, expert and consultant fees, investigator costs, travel expenses and process server delivery fees. It should be noted that other kinds of costs might come into play as well.
It is important for car accident plaintiffs in Texas to be aware of these potential costs and to talk about them with their attorneys before beginning their personal injury cases. It is also vital to include these costs as part of the claims for compensation relating to their car accident cases.
