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Introduction
Choosing a lawyer to represent you in a civil matter can be a
challenge. Finding a lawyer is not difficult - lawyers advertise
in telephone books, on billboards, and even on the television.
However, choosing a lawyer requires patience and deliberation.
The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association urges anyone seeking a lawyer
to talk with their friends and family to learn as much as they
can before entering a fee arrangement with any attorney. We hope
our suggestions below will help guide you in choosing a lawyer.
Fee Arrangements
A fee arrangement is the way you will pay a lawyer to represent
you in a civil matter. There are two general types of fee arrangements:
the hourly rate and the "contingency fee." The hourly
rate arrangement means that you pay the attorney a set amount
of money for each hour she works on your case. Many lawyers bill
for fractions of time they work. In an hourly fee arrangement,
the lawyer should bill you on a fairly regular basis, with descriptions
of the tasks she has done, the amount of time she has spent, and
the cost for each task. You are expected to pay the bill like
any other bill you receive. An hourly arrangement works well for
many types of cases.
Not every person can afford to pay lawyers the hourly rates they
charge. Lawyers in Georgia charge anywhere from $100 per hour
to over $500 per hour in hourly fee arrangements. It is impossible
in most cases to determine up front how long a case may take,
but many cases require more than 50 man-hours to prepare adequately
for trial. At a rate of $150 per hour, a 30 hour case would cost
the average person $4,500.00! Most people do not have this kind
of money available to them, particularly if they are out of work
because of their legal situation.
Contingency Fee Arrangement
The contingent fee is perhaps the one device in law that gives
injured people, no matter what their financial means, an even
break in the courtroom against giant corporations and insurance
companies. In a contingency fee arrangement, the lawyer agrees
to represent you without you paying any money on an hourly basis.
Rather, you pay the lawyer from the amount of money she recovers
on your behalf. For example, if the lawyer recovers $1000 for
you and you are on a contingency fee arrangement of 33%, you pay
the lawyer $330 out of the $1000 she recovered for you, after
expenses (more on this below) and you receive the remaining $630
(setting aside expenses).
This arrangement is called a "contingency fee" because
generally, if you do not recover anything from the opposing party,
the lawyer receives no compensation for her time. In other words,
even though the attorney may spend well over 40 hours on your
case (which, we know from above, may have an actual value of $6000
or more), she receives nothing, since she recovered nothing for
you. This gives the lawyer the incentive to work hard on your
case and ensure that you receive the most compensation.
Lawyers that take cases on a contingency fee arrangement have
gotten a "bad rap" in the media over the years. Everyone
is familiar with the derogatory term "ambulance chaser."
However, seldom is heard a discouraging word from the thousands
of victims who were able to retain, on a contingency basis, quality
lawyers who proved a match and more for corporate counsel. In
short, the attacks on the contingent fee system come from the
tortfeasors who have to compensate their victims, not from
victims who have to pay their lawyers. And it is a disingenuous
argument. The tortfeasors never seek limits on their own ability
to pay lawyers or access a defense. They seek only to limit victims.
Their mission is to make the already uneven playing field even
more uneven.
Were it not for the contingent fee, people of the middle class
or of low economic means would not be able to have their day in
court, a constitutional right which corporations and insurance
companies fight hard to eliminate.
Nearly 50 years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan
Stone spoke for all those who have the honor to speak out for
the innocent injured:
"The most elementary conceptions of justice and public policy
require that the wrongdoer shall bear the risk of the uncertainty
which his own wrong has created."
Bigelow v. RKO Radio Pictures, 66 S. Ct. 574, 580 (1946).
More than 30 years ago, Judge Michael A. Musmanno said it best:
"If it were not for contingent fees, indigent victims of
tortious accidents would be subject to the unbridled, self-willed
partisanship of their tortfeasors. The person who has, without
fault on his part, been injured and who, because of his injury,
is unable to work, and has a large family to support, and has
no money to engage a lawyer, would be at the mercy of the person
who disabled him because, being in a superior economic position,
the injuring person could force on his victim, desperately in
need of money to keep the candle of life burning in himself and
his dependent ones, a wholly unconscionably meager sum in settlement,
or even refuse to pay him anything at all. Any society, and especially
a democratic one, worthy of respect in the spectrum of civilization,
should never tolerate such a victimization of the weak by the
mighty."
Richette v. Solomon, 187 A.2d 910, 919 (Pa. 1963).
Contingent fee practice has been an essential ingredient in our
justice system for more than 100 years. It permits every American,
regardless of wealth or social standing, the opportunity to pursue
a valid claim against even the most powerful corporation or individual.
In large measure, it has made our justice system the envy of the
world. It breathes life into the democratic ideals that no one
is above the law and everyone must be accountable for his or her
behavior.
Ironically, those who object most strenuously to contingent fee
practice, and now call for regulation or limits, seldom have had
occasion to represent the injured who need such a fee agreement.
Instead, the contingent fee critics typically are the defendants
called on to account for their negligence or recklessness by injured
consumers.
It's no secret that businesses and individuals who want to avoid
accountability for their negligent and reckless acts are pushing
for special protections in state legislatures and Congress. But
wrongdoers and their apologists have initiated a less obvious
line of attack on the American consumer, an attack that levels
its sights not on consumers but an easier target: the lawyers
who represent them.
This insidious assault is only on America's consumer lawyers.
The only party whose attorney's fees would be limited is the consumer,
not the wrongdoer! Whether the wrongdoer seeks to limit liability
or to interfere with fee agreements, its goal remains the same:
to deny access to justice to the tens of thousands of Americans
who are injured each year due to another's wrongful acts.
Expenses of Litigation
When you retain a lawyer, you must agree to pay the expenses
of litigation. The expenses of litigation are different from the
lawyer’s fee. The lawyer’s fee is compensation to the
lawyer for her time spent preparing the case. The expenses are
the costs associated with preparing the case. Expenses include
items such as court costs, deposition transcripts and fees, witness
costs, and, in a personal injury case, the cost to collect and
evaluate medical evidence. Expenses vary in every case, but they
can be very expensive in difficult cases – sometimes more
than $10,000-20,000.
Many lawyers will not advance the expenses of your litigation
and will require in their fee contracts that you be responsible
for the expenses even if you do not recover from the responsible
party. If you do recover, the lawyer will take the expenses out
of any recovery. Do not confuse the lawyer’s fee with the
expenses of litigation. Be sure to read your fee contract with
the lawyer carefully so that you are clear on how and when you
will pay the expenses. Not every attorney agrees to wait until
the conclusion of the case to get reimbursement for expenses,
so be sure to ask the question while you are interviewing attorneys
to take your case.
Conclusion
The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association encourages you to seek
representation from any of its attorneys. Be sure to ask plenty
of questions and to speak with several attorneys before you make
a decision.
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