Most medical malpractice lawyers will represent a client under a contingency fee arrangement, meaning the lawyer's entire fee is paid as a percentage of the award or settlement in the case. So, if the case goes to trial and the patient loses, or if the client receives nothing in the way of settlement, the lawyer is never paid a fee.
Jul 16, 2021 · As such, most medical malpractice attorneys agree to prosecute a plaintiff’s claim on a contingent basis. This means that the attorney takes a percentage of any favorable verdict or settlement in exchange for providing representation. The most common arrangement involves an attorney taking one third of any damages collected.
Plaintiffs have no obligation to pay attorney’s fees unless there’s a recovery at mediation, settlement, or after the jury verdict. Then, and only then, the plaintiffs’ attorneys are paid 40% of the gross recovery. In the contingency fee model, all of the risk of a zero recovery is on the shoulders of the plaintiffs’ attorney.
An attorney may not collect a fee in a medical malpractice case which, after being deducted from his client’s recovery, will leave an amount for the claimant's compensation that is less than the total amount of the claimant's unpaid past and future medical expenses, unless the attorney's fee is either 20 percent or less of the claimant's recovery, reduced to 20 percent or less of the …
A flat-rate fee structure is very uncommon in medical malpractice cases. The most common scenarios under which flat rates are used are for simple legal proceedings such as wills, landlord/tenant cases or simple business formations.
With hourly rates, client and attorney agree upon an hourly rate at which time the attorney will bill the case. For medical malpractice cases, on an hourly basis, a person can expect to pay between $200 to as much as $600 per hour of attorney work.
Medical malpractice cases generally involve hours upon hours of paperwork, whether it be research, responding to or drafting discovery requests and motions, or prepping experts and other witnesses, the time involved is consistently measured in the hundreds of man hours.
In addition to attorney fees, any legal bill also contains costs and expenses related to the litigation such as court fees, copy fees, postage and mileage. But in medical malpractice cases, the costs can increase exponentially, especially with the added burden of required expert testimony.