What About Legal Fees?
Looking only for the lowest percentage or the lowest fee may not be in your best interests. This is similar to building a house using the cheapest building materials, and the cheapest contractors, but expect the house to be well-built. You have to pay more for good contractors.
But in personal injury cases, a rather strange thing usually happens: hiring a good lawyer likely puts more money back in your pocket because the settlement will likely be larger due to the experience of the lawyer. In some rare cases, an inexperienced lawyer may think $500,000 is a fair settlement for a catastrophically brain injured person when the case may have sufficient merits to command a much higher amount. With a likely higher settlement amount, you would likely receive more in your pocket after fees HST and disbursements are deducted when compared to a lower settlement amount and even a lower fee percentage with a less experienced lawyer. In our observation, inexperienced lawyers sometimes charge even higher fee percentages than those charged by experienced lawyers.
From our observations in over 25 years of experience, we estimate that experienced and committed injury lawyers achieve better results when compared to average injury lawyers as follows:
(a) At least 25% larger settlements on average for catastrophic injury cases;
(b) 50% larger settlements in at least 20% (2 out of 10) of catastrophic cases;
(c) 100% larger, or twice as large, settlements in at least 10% (1 out of 10) of catastrophic cases;
(d) 1,000% larger, or 10 times as large, settlements in at least 1% (1 out of 100) of catastrophic cases; and
(e) There are many known serious and catastrophic cases where they were nearly thrown out of court, or were settled for less than $100,000, or $50,000, or for even $10,000. Fortunately, a few of them were able to subsequently find more experienced and committed lawyers, and were lucky enough to overcome their disastrous history, to ultimately achieve much more than $1,000,000. But unfortunately, for the vast majority of the injured victims in these cases, they just would never know that they were further victimized. Justice failed them, silently.
To get the most compensation in your pocket is to hire the best lawyer you can find because the best lawyer and the inexperienced lawyer both do not charge you anything upfront. Everyone in personal injury law essentially practices on a no-fee basis until compensation is received. Many lawyers do not use catchy phrases such as "No Win - No Fee", but practice the same as those who use the phrase, that is they all do not charge you upfront fees, and they charge only after you received money. Similarly, practically all personal injury lawyers including certified specialists do not charge a fee for the first or initial consultation.
Starting July 1, 2021, the Law Society of Ontario requires a Consumer Guide to contingency fees to be provided to every client who enters into a contingency fee agreement. The Guide may be found by clicking here: "Contingency Fees: What you need to know - A guide from the Law Society of Ontario". Also starting on July 1, the Law Society requires a standard form agreement to be adapted and used for nearly all personal injury contingency fee cases. The form can be found by clicking here: Standard Form Contingency Fee Agreement.
Looking only for the lowest percentage or the lowest fee may not be in your best interests. This is similar to building a house using the cheapest building materials, and the cheapest contractors, but expect the house to be well-built. You have to pay more for good contractors.
But in personal injury cases, a rather strange thing usually happens: hiring a good lawyer likely puts more money back in your pocket because the settlement will likely be larger due to the experience of the lawyer. In some rare cases, an inexperienced lawyer may think $500,000 is a fair settlement for a catastrophically brain injured person when the case may have sufficient merits to command a much higher amount. With a likely higher settlement amount, you would likely receive more in your pocket after fees HST and disbursements are deducted when compared to a lower settlement amount and even a lower fee percentage with a less experienced lawyer. In our observation, inexperienced lawyers sometimes charge even higher fee percentages than those charged by experienced lawyers.
From our observations in over 25 years of experience, we estimate that experienced and committed injury lawyers achieve better results when compared to average injury lawyers as follows:
(a) At least 25% larger settlements on average for catastrophic injury cases;
(b) 50% larger settlements in at least 20% (2 out of 10) of catastrophic cases;
(c) 100% larger, or twice as large, settlements in at least 10% (1 out of 10) of catastrophic cases;
(d) 1,000% larger, or 10 times as large, settlements in at least 1% (1 out of 100) of catastrophic cases; and
(e) There are many known serious and catastrophic cases where they were nearly thrown out of court, or were settled for less than $100,000, or $50,000, or for even $10,000. Fortunately, a few of them were able to subsequently find more experienced and committed lawyers, and were lucky enough to overcome their disastrous history, to ultimately achieve much more than $1,000,000. But unfortunately, for the vast majority of the injured victims in these cases, they just would never know that they were further victimized. Justice failed them, silently.
To get the most compensation in your pocket is to hire the best lawyer you can find because the best lawyer and the inexperienced lawyer both do not charge you anything upfront. Everyone in personal injury law essentially practices on a no-fee basis until compensation is received. Many lawyers do not use catchy phrases such as "No Win - No Fee", but practice the same as those who use the phrase, that is they all do not charge you upfront fees, and they charge only after you received money. Similarly, practically all personal injury lawyers including certified specialists do not charge a fee for the first or initial consultation.
Starting July 1, 2021, the Law Society of Ontario requires a Consumer Guide to contingency fees to be provided to every client who enters into a contingency fee agreement. The Guide may be found by clicking here: "Contingency Fees: What you need to know - A guide from the Law Society of Ontario". Also starting on July 1, the Law Society requires a standard form agreement to be adapted and used for nearly all personal injury contingency fee cases. The form can be found by clicking here: Standard Form Contingency Fee Agreement.