Attorney's Fees in Workers' Compensation; what you need to know. Have you seen some lawyers ads saying no fees unless recovery made. Have you seen ads saying why charge 40% when you can get 25%. And maybe You've heard Mitch Dugan by now on t.v. explaining there is no fee unless you get the money or benefits you deserve. But what does it all mean?
Workers' Compensation is generally payments for lost wages and medical bills if you have suffered a compensable work related injury. An injury (or illness) you sustained arising in the course of your employment and related thereto. Worker's Compensation law or work injury law is a form of personal injury law. A type of subcategory of personal injury law. Even though the accidents can occur the same way. But personal injury cases, particularly regarding fees, are different than workers' compensation fees.
Personal Injury, generally means you suffered an injury. If you suffered an injury due to the negligence of someone other than your employer you may have a civil negligence lawsuit (personal injury law). Most common are car accidents, medical malpractice, slip and falls, products liability for example. There you can sue the person who was at fault for your injuries and collect money for lost wages, medical bills, and pain and suffering. In a personal injury civil negligence lawsuit typically you will receive a one time lump sum settlement for everything. Attorney's fees vary from case to case and lawyer to lawyer. Remember you get what you pay for. But generally in personal injury cases attorney fees of 33.3%-40% is common. Also, if the lawyer advanced the legal costs those may also come out of your lump sum settlement in a personal injury case.
In a work injury case one could have been injured the same way as in personal injury case (car accident, products liability, medical malpractice etc...) but the injury is related to your employment. In a work injury settlement (see prior blogs) one is typically giving up their right to weekly or biweekly workers' compensation checks and often their right to payment of medical expenses. You can not collect for pain and suffering in a work comp case.
At Dugan & Associates, we handle personal injury and workers' compensation cases. There is no fee unless we get you the money or benefits you deserve. In a work injury case the attorney fee is 20%. And there are protections under the workers' compensation act to protect you from insurance carriers which requires all settlements be approved by a work comp judge. Thus all attorney fees have to be approved by a workers' compensation judge.
Also, most times we are able to negotiate that the workers' compensation insurance carrier reimburse us our litigation costs that we advanced in addition to the lump sum monies being paid to you in your lump sum workers' compensation settlement, not deducted from your monies, putting more money in your pocket.
Of course, often times an injury can be both a personal injury law case and a workers' compensation law case. We handle those too at Dugan & Associates.
If you or your loved one has questions about a workers' compensation case, personal injury case, attorney fees, or litigation costs call Dugan & Associates 1-800-772-5422. Remember there is no fee unless we get you the money or benefits you deserve.
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