re: Private personal injury attorney vs. large firm

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They will be asking for 30%-40% of your total settlement including the amount you pay to doctor bills which is ridiculous IMO. For example:

Completely hypothetical and assumes no medical insurance involved...

Your medical expenses total $21,500
You settle your claim for $70,000
Your attorney gets (at 35%) $24,500
You only get 24,000 after you pay medical bills

So your attorney winds up getting more than you after you pay all your bills.

The amount that goes to pay your doctor bills shouldn't be part of what the attorney gets. The attorney should get 30% of what he/she can negotiate AFTER medical bills. Would be tough to find an attorney to do this, but trust me, it's possible and only fair in my opinion.

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How much do you think you would get if you didn't get an attorney at all and just asked the insurance company please?

You would need the insurance company to pay you $45,500 with no attorney to get what you get because you got an attorney. Good luck with talking to the insurance adjuster and getting that done with no filing or threat of suit.

quote:

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The amount that goes to pay your doctor bills shouldn't be part of what the attorney gets. The attorney should get 30% of what he/she can negotiate AFTER medical bills. Would be tough to find an attorney to do this, but trust me, it's possible and only fair in my opinion.

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This ignores a few important things attorneys do relative to the medical bills:

1) many times, doctors will not treat you without having the attorney sign a guarantee, regardless of your personal medical insurance, once they find out it's a personal injury.

2) they can negotiate your medical bills so you aren't paying full price;

3) they may have to pay some of your bills up front;

4) they deal with all of the third and fourth parties required to establish your loss--I.e. Getting your medical records, billing history, accounting for any types of insurance liens on your recovery, etc.--almost no health care providers keep any type of records in house. A trip to the ER means dealing with bills and records agencies for the doctors, nursing staff, the actual hospital, any x-rays or imaging, etc.

Personal Injury attorneys get a really bad rep, and in some instances it is completely warranted. But the idea perpetuated that they just make a few phone calls and then take half of the their client's money is inaccurate and underestimates what a pain in the arse it is to do this type of work.