Personal Injury Law – Most personal injury case retainer agreements provide for a one-third legal fee contingent upon a recovery (by verdict or settlement) and will include language something like this:
The percentage fee is calculated on the amount recovered. The disbursements are deducted from the plaintiff’s settlement or verdict amount. The disbursements properly chargeable to the case are items such as investigation and expert fees.
It means that the expenses and disbursements (we’ll give examples in a moment) are deducted from the plaintiff’s settlement or verdict amount (and reimbursed to the lawyer who, after all, advanced those items out of his own bank account).
So the one-third legal fee is on the net, fine. But what are the expenses and disbursements that are “properly chargeable?”
Let’s get the easy ones out of the way first. Here are several typical plainly proper categories and also some typical amounts you might see on the closing statement. (The closing statement is what your lawyer files with the court system at the end of your case to advise the authorities of the recovery, his fee and his disbursements.):
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