Bronx County, NY: Bronx | Riverdale | Co-op City | Highbridge | Belmont
One of the big questions people fear about investigating a lawsuit is the cost. There’s an idea that people are going to have to pay huge amounts of money up front to secure a top-notch Bronx personal injury law firm like Feiner & Lavy.
This isn’t true, and the reason is that our compensation comes from contingency fees. Basically, if we don’t win you any money, we don’t get paid. This is a tremendous motivator for a law firm!
But what is a contingency fee? It is basically a percentage of the settlement you receive in a personal injury case. It usually amounts to 33% of the settlement, after expenses, but this can vary with different types of cases. So, if you come to Feiner & Lavy and we agree to represent you in a personal injury action, we believe that your injuries not only deserve a healthy settlement, but we also feel that a judge and/or a jury would be very likely to side with you. This is highly significant in determining if you could have a good outcome.
Another aspect of this is when the law firm and/or insurance company representing the person or company that is responsible for your injury sees a law firm like Feiner & Lavy is on your side, they won’t try to offer you pennies on the dollar. Of course, they will negotiate hard – this is their job for their client just like representing you is our job – but they know that if you represented yourself, you’d settle for far less than a law firm that will collect a third of the settlement. This not only makes the final settlement higher, but makes the process go a lot faster.
Expenses represent the other part of understanding contingency payments. Clients should ask us or any law firm they visit bout this. An estimate of expenses may not be reasonable, but understanding this at the beginning can really ease someone’s mind. When we talk about expenses, there are many areas that have to be accounted for: filing fees in court, having subpoenas issued and delivered, getting an examination from a doctor the court will agree is impartial, expert witnesses, investigators, mailing and office expenses. These things can add up, but they’re not as expensive as it may seem. Those expenses are also something that will be added up and then paid from a client’s payment.
In the final analysis, a law firm charging a continency fee exposes you to far less in potential expenses than a firm that would charge an hourly rate, but there will be a sizable payment going to the law firm. To us, one of the great things for our clients is that it enables you to investigate a case at no risk. We believe it is a great opportunity that is afforded to people by the American legal system, and that it is one of the great things that lowers the bar to enter into this kind of action and lets everyone participate.
You owe it to yourself to get the maximum settlement for any injury you suffered due to the negligence of another. Don’t waste another minute: call or contact Feiner & Lavy today for a free case consultation.
