spending all of the judgment in legal fees? • If you take this case, how do you think you would proceed? • Of cases like this that have gone to trial, how many have you won and what size judgments have you received for your clients? • Have you argued against this defendant’s lawyer before? What was the outcome? What is your relationship with him or her? • Will you be handling the bulk of this case yourself or will you pass it on to an associate or paralegal? (If others will be involved in a substantive portion of the work, you may want to interview those individuals.) • Will I be notified of all court dates? Who will inform me? • Will you provide me with copies of all documents and correspondence? • How will you charge for this case? The last question is crucial. Common options are contingency, flat fee and hourly rate. Contingency fee arrangements usually are used with these kinds of cases and are
attractive because they rarely require money up front. When the settlement or judgment is complete, the attorney will take a percentage ranging from 20% to 50%,
Discussing fees up front is extremely important.
which comes off the top of the settlement or judgment. The most common in many jurisdictions is one third, although 40% is becoming more common. The percentage
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