How Much Does a Truck Accident Attorney Cost?
When a truck accident leaves you with serious or catastrophic injuries, you must make choices that affect your health and financial future. You seek experienced medical professionals and take time away from work to heal. You choose a seasoned Connecticut attorney to protect your legal rights. Healthcare coverage and disability benefits pay some of these costs, but what about your legal bill? How much does a truck accident attorney cost? The answer is simpler than you think.
Your Injury Attorney Won’t Send a Bill
Unlike other professionals, a truck accident attorney won’t send a monthly bill for services rendered. Connecticut injury law firms charge legal fees only after they resolve a case. This unique performance-based arrangement is called a contingency fee. It’s contingent on the settlement or court award an attorney recovers by negotiating a claim or concluding a lawsuit.
When an injury lawyer accepts a case, they dedicate their energy and resources to advocating for their client. An injured client can focus on recovery and rehabilitation while their lawyers handle liability, coverage, and damages issues, and work to safeguard their legal rights.
Timing Is Critical When You’re Injured in an Accident
When a trucker crashes into your vehicle, the consequences can be devastating. You need a legal representative working on your case before the evidence fades away. This evidence transition often begins before the police arrive or an ambulance leaves the accident scene.
Ongoing traffic erases skid marks and pushes accident debris to the side of the road. Witnesses rethink their versions, change their minds, or become unreachable. Drivers sometimes revise their accident versions to minimize their potential for liability. You need a legal professional to investigate your accident before any of these situations occur.
Truck Accident Attorneys Prioritize Service Over Billing
Legal fees should never prevent you from getting the timely legal assistance you require. Connecticut injury attorneys work hard to meet this need. They provide dedicated, compassionate service without demanding payment each step of the way. They work on your behalf while you take time to heal.
When you establish an attorney/client relationship, your legal team begins working immediately on a long list of essential services:
- Conducting a site investigation
- Photographing the accident area and vehicle damage
- Obtaining police and ambulance reports
- Obtaining witness and driver statements
- Verifying the trucker’s employment status at the time of the accident
- Placing responsible parties on notice of your injuries and potential claims
- Confirming the trucking company’s liability insurance information
- Conducting necessary legal research
- Assessing liability and damages
- Updating you about the status of your claim
An injury lawyer does the work necessary to investigate and evaluate your case. They won’t send a bill after every activity, discussion, or progress report. You never have to think about legal fees until your attorney executes the final paperwork for your case.
Establishing a Contingency Fee Arrangement
When a trucker injures you, you need legal assistance, but you don’t need another bill. When you consult with an attorney as soon as possible after your accident, you can establish a working relationship and get the help you need.
During your initial contact with a law firm, they will do the following:
- Schedule a complimentary consultation with an attorney
- Meet with you at your convenience, even in your hospital room
- Talk about the accident
- Listen to and document your version
- Discuss your injuries
- Get your written permission to obtain your medical records
- Offer an opinion as to whether the firm can help you
- Explain your legal options
- Explain how contingency fees work
- Execute an engagement agreement if you wish to proceed with your case
An engagement agreement formalizes your attorney/client relationship. It explains both parties’ rights, responsibilities, and duties. It also documents your contingency fee arrangement. The agreement must comply with Connecticut General Statutes and Rules of Professional Conduct in the Connecticut Practice Book.
How Much Does a Truck Accident Attorney Cost?
In calculating your contingency fee, Connecticut attorneys follow strict guidelines outlined under Connecticut General Statutes, Chapter 901, §52-251c. These provisions establish law firm billing practices for personal injury, wrongful death, and property damage claims or lawsuits.
The statute further defines legal fees as contingent upon the amount of damage awards or settlements an attorney receives for an injured client.
- Fee for award/settlement up to $300,000: 33 & ⅓ percent
- Fee for the next $300,000 of an award/settlement: 25 percent
- Fee for the next $300,000 of an award/settlement: 20 percent
- Fee for the next $300,000 of an award/settlement: 15 percent
- Fee for any award/settlement which exceeds $1,200,000: 10 percent
These percentages limit the legal fees payable when your attorney recovers damages on your behalf.
Can An Attorney Charge More Than a Contingency Fee?
Under certain circumstances, Connecticut statutes allow an injury attorney to charge clients for amounts higher than a customary contingency fee. The claim or civil action must be “so substantially complex, unique or different…” from similar cases that it warrants a fee deviation. The circumstances may include:
- Complex factual, medical, or legal issues
- Serious permanent personal injury or death
- Cases that will likely require extensive investigation and discovery, including multiple depositions
- Cases that require independent expert witness depositions or trial testimony.
These exceptions exist because investigating and resolving these types of cases can require far more resources than a traditional claim. This is often true of truck accidents. The extreme size and weight differences between large commercial trucks and private passenger vehicles increase the potential for catastrophic injuries. A truck accident may require experts when a driver disputes liability due to a vehicle or part defect or negligent vehicle maintenance.
An attorney can only seek higher fees when an injured client waives the traditional percentage limitations.
The Benefits of a Contingency Fee Agreement?
A contingency fee agreement establishes a mutually beneficial relationship. It considers the interests of both the injured person and the attorney.
Benefits For an Injured Client
When you sustain injuries in an accident, a contingency arrangement allows you to receive the immediate legal help you need without draining your financial resources. It gives you access to legal information, injury evaluations, negotiation proficiency, and other legal skills you might not have otherwise.
Injury attorneys deal with insurers, corporations, and defense attorneys. They negotiate on your behalf, and you don’t owe a fee until they produce results. Few professionals offer their clients this type of billing arrangement.
Benefits Of an Injury Attorney
Contingency fee agreements benefit lawyers by allowing them to earn legal fees for a client’s case. They spend time and law firm resources building a case against the people who harmed you. They hire investigators, independent medical examiners, accident reconstructionists, and other experts. Still, they don’t earn fees until they resolve your case.
Can You Avoid Legal Fees By Handling Your Own Case?
Some injured people don’t want to pay legal fees so they handle their injury claims on their own. Of course, you have a right to choose this option, but that doesn’t mean you should.
When a truck accident attorney handles your case, you owe them a percentage of any settlement or court award. When you’re anticipating long-term disabilities and a diminishing income, you might believe it’s prudent to keep every dollar you receive.
Before you choose to handle your own claim, you should carefully consider your potential responsibilities.
You Have To Handle Everything
If you decide to handle your own injury claim, your choice will affect the outcome of your case. As your own representative, you must protect your legal rights, investigate and evaluate your case, review any liability issues, and perform many tasks a legal team traditionally handles.
- When you’re seriously injured, you will deal with the most experienced commercial investigators. As their companies pay them to get results, they have no problem taking your statement while you’re recuperating and using your own words to sabotage your case.
- You must self-evaluate your injuries without the legal resources necessary to compare recent settlements and judgments.
- You’ll have to understand and monitor your statute of limitations. You must settle your claim or file a lawsuit before you miss your deadline.
- You will deal with claim negotiators who recognize that you may not understand your injury’s dollar value. As they have a duty to the trucking company, insurance company, and clients–not you–they will take advantage of any shortcomings they identify.
- As many unrepresented people do, you may feel compelled to accept a settlement far less than you should have received.
A contingency fee considers a truck accident attorney’s knowledge and legal capabilities. They understand complex legal issues because they see them every day. They deal confidently with negligent truckers, their employers, commercial insurance companies, and their legal representatives. They evaluate serious injuries and implement effective negotiation strategies.
You Might Cooperate When You Probably Shouldn’t
When you don’t have an attorney protecting your interests, you become a target for insurance investigators. They need your accident version and they will come to your hospital room, call your home, or come knocking on your door to get it. Without someone intervening on your behalf, you will likely cooperate. Cooperation isn’t inherently a bad thing, but it could cause you to sabotage your case.
As late-night legal commercials might lead you to believe, insurance investigators don’t approach you with a villainous sneer. They smile and act friendly. They ask permission to record an “interview.” Then they ask a lot of questions with underlying meanings you might not recognize. Although you may understand what’s at stake, If you don’t know the legal issues you might say the wrong thing.
The Trucker’s Insurance Company May Delay Payment or Deny Your Claim
You expect a negligent trucker’s insurer to pay all of your accident-related expenses. Unfortunately, most commercial liability claim processes are neither fast nor efficient. Insurance companies usually begin immediate accident investigations, yet they often postpone payment decisions for weeks or even months. When a claim involves high-dollar injury values or complex legal issues, they often lengthen the delay.
Once an insurer concludes their accident investigation, they might decide to pay your claim but they might not. Connecticut’s Unfair Insurance Practices Act requires that an insurer “…act with reasonable promptness…” to investigate and resolve claims. They must also evaluate a case and inform you of their decision.
If an insurance company denies liability for your claim, they must tell you why. While they would likely discuss all of the legal aspects with your attorney, they wouldn’t necessarily explain them to you. Here are just a few:
- The insured’s coverage isn’t valid
- The insurer disputes your injury’s cause or severity
- The trucker blames the accident on you
- Witness versions differ from your version
- The trucking company blames manufacturers or subcontractors.
- The trucking company shifted legal responsibility with hold harmless agreements
- Liability issues exist due to the driver’s status:
- Deadheading (operating without a trailer)
- Bobtailing (operating with a trailer but no load)
- Local claim staff doesn’t have the authority to pay high-dollar claims
Sometimes truck accidents involve too many legal issues to make a decision. Insurers sometimes choose to send out a letter denying a claim now. They can always pay later or defend their inured if you file a lawsuit. When you’re handling your claim without legal help, you have to figure out your next move.
A Trucking Company May be Self-Insured
Some truck accidents involve self-insured transport corporations. They often have umbrella coverage for excruciatingly high losses, but no liability insurance. When a self-insured company settles a claim, the money comes from its corporate resources. This gives them a financial interest in every claim outcome. This doesn’t mean they won’t eventually pay your claim, but a self-insured status often influences how a company handles settlements.
As insurers sometimes do, a self-insured entity’s in-house team may deny liability for an accident or dispute injury severity. They may negotiate unfairly, refusing to offer an adequate settlement despite the evidence. This negotiation strategy may force an injured victim to accept a low offer or miss a statute of limitations deadline.
Accident Victims Have Enough Stress.
When a tractor-trailer rig crashes into a private passenger vehicle, the impact often causes serious or catastrophic injuries. Getting back to a normal life sometimes requires months or even years of surgical interventions, rehabilitation, and extended care. When you have a legal professional working on your behalf, you can step away from some of the stress, take a deep breath, and recover in peace.
How much does a truck accident attorney cost? As you consider this question, remember you have one chance to build a legal case strong enough to win the money you need to thrive. You should never try to manage such a serious challenge on your own.
Contact a Truck Accident Attorney
When you contact a lawyer as soon as possible after your accident, a legal team acts quickly on your behalf. As your legal representative, they intervene with insurers, trucking companies, and other entities. They protect your legal rights and become an advocate on your behalf. Attorneys perform innumerable legal services for a contingency fee. As a client, you don’t pay until they resolve your case.