Anyone with a personal injury claim that has hired a lawyer should be ready to pay a contingency fee, once the case has concluded. That compensates the hired attorney for his or her time. It does not provide reimbursement for the lawyer’s payment of certain out-of-pocket costs.

How clients should approach the need to reimburse their lawyer for the out-of-pocket costs?

Set a dollar limit on the amount of money that should be used to cover those costs. If a retained attorney feels the need to exceed that limit, then he or she should consult with the client, before spending that added amount of money.

Expenses that a client should view as essential, when setting a limit

The cost for copying any papers: There are many papers that have to be shared.

The fees charged for the filing of papers: The court keeps track of what cases have been filed, so that it can order the proper action, following a settlement or issuance of a court ruling. The court must pay those employees that handle the filed papers.

Cost of calls: If a Personal Injury Lawyer in Waterdown must make a long-distance phone call, as part of an investigation, or in order to seek an expert witness, then the lawyer’s client should cover the cost of that call.

Paid for time: The lawyer’s investigation begins before the pre-settlement negotiations. An investigator might visit the scene of the accident, or look for a source of useful video footage. Obviously, investigators have to be paid for their time.

Seek records: When lawyers go after a police report or seek a client’s medical records, their efforts force them to pay a fee. Those are like the filing fee charged by the court. Someone has taken the time to file and retrieve the requested items. That has created an expense that must be handled.

At the pre-trial deposition, which is part of the discovery session, someone must record the witnesses’ statements and the lawyers’ questions. The recorder has to be paid for performance of that service. The lawyers’ access to that recorded information can help them to choose the questions that might be asked at the time of the trial.

Sometimes, an attorney wants to question an expert at the trial. Most experts expect to be paid for their time in the witness stand. Hence, the payments that must be made to any of the witnesses should be included in a list of the essential expenses. The jury gets to see various displays, while listening to the witnesses’ testimonies. Naturally each display creates an added expense. Yet, in the absence of such displays a piece of evidence might not catch the jurors’ attention, because its significance would not have been sufficiently highlighted.