Will Your Lawyer Make More Money Than You? What's Fair in Contingency Fee Cases
The question that keeps injured people from hiring an attorney. Here's the honest answer.
You're sitting in your living room, medical bills piling up on the kitchen table. The insurance company offered you $25,000 to settle your case. You know you need a lawyer, but there's a question eating at you:
What if my attorney ends up making more money from my case than I do?
It's a legitimate concern. And unfortunately, it happens more often than it should.
But here's what you need to know: if your attorney is doing their job right and acting ethically, they should never recover more than you do from your own case. If they are, something is wrong.
The Math That Keeps People Up at Night
Let's look at a real scenario we hear about all the time.
You were injured in a car accident. Your medical bills total $18,000. The insurance company offers $25,000 to settle.
You think: "Great! I'll pay my $18,000 in bills and keep $7,000."
But then you remember your attorney works on contingency. That usually means they take 33% to 40% of the total settlement.
Let's do the math with a 33% contingency fee:
Total settlement: $25,000
Attorney fee (33%): $8,250
Medical bills: $18,000
What you keep: Negative $1,250
Wait. You owe money? Your attorney makes $8,250, and you're in the red?
This is the nightmare scenario clients worry about. And yes, it does happen with some attorneys.
When Your Attorney Makes More Than You Do
Here's when this problem typically shows up:
High medical bills with modest settlements. You went to the emergency room, had follow-up appointments, maybe physical therapy. Your bills are $15,000 or $20,000. But the insurance company is only offering $25,000 or $30,000 because the other driver only had minimum coverage.
Cases with liens. Medicare, Medicaid, or health insurance companies have liens on your settlement. They want their money back. Sometimes workers' compensation has a lien too. These liens can eat up a huge portion of your recovery.
Small cases that went to trial. Your attorney spent hundreds of hours on a case that resulted in a smaller verdict than expected. They still want their full fee, even though it means you get almost nothing.
In all these situations, you might look at the numbers and realize: my attorney is taking home more than I am from my own injury case.
Why This Is Wrong (And What Ethical Attorneys Do Instead)
Let's be clear: an ethical personal injury attorney should never let this happen without taking action to fix it.
Your attorney has two main tools to make sure you don't walk away with less than they do:
Tool #1: Negotiate Down Medical Bills and Liens
This is a huge part of what good personal injury attorneys do. Those medical bills and liens aren't set in stone. They can often be negotiated down.
Medical providers will often accept less than the full bill amount if:
They're getting paid now instead of waiting or never getting paid
They understand the settlement is limited
Your attorney knows how to negotiate effectively
Liens can be reduced too. Medicare and Medicaid liens can sometimes be negotiated down. Health insurance company liens can often be reduced significantly. Hospital liens may have legal defenses that can eliminate them entirely.
A skilled attorney doesn't just accept the bills at face value. They fight to reduce what you owe so more money goes into your pocket.
Example:
Settlement: $25,000
Original medical bills: $18,000
Attorney negotiates bills down to: $9,000
Attorney fee (33%): $8,250
What you keep: $7,750
This is better. You're walking away with real money instead of being in the red. But you're still taking home less than your attorney ($7,750 vs. $8,250). That's when Tool #2 comes in.
Tool #2: Reduce Their Own Fee
Sometimes, even after negotiating bills and liens down, the numbers still don't work. The settlement is just too small compared to what you owe.
This is when an ethical attorney reduces their fee.
They might drop from 33% to 25%. Or 25% to 20%. Or even waive their fee entirely in extreme cases. The point is: they make sure you're not walking away with less than they are.
Example:
Settlement: $25,000
Medical bills (already negotiated down): $15,000
Standard attorney fee would be (33%): $8,250
But that would leave you with: $1,750
Attorney reduces fee to: $4,500
What you keep: $5,500
Now you're taking home more than your attorney ($5,500 vs. $4,500). That's fair. That's ethical. That's how it should work.
Questions to Ask Before You Hire an Attorney
Not all attorneys operate this way. Some will take their full fee no matter what it means for you. Here's how to protect yourself:
Question 1: "What happens if my medical bills are so high that I would get less than you do after your fee?"
Listen carefully to their answer. A good attorney will explain that they negotiate bills down and, if necessary, reduce their fee. A bad attorney will dodge the question or tell you "that's just how contingency fees work."
Question 2: "Can you give me an estimate of what I might actually take home after bills and your fee?"
An experienced attorney should be able to give you a ballpark estimate. They've handled hundreds of cases. They know roughly what to expect. If they can't or won't give you any idea, that's a red flag.
Question 3: "Have you ever reduced your fee to make sure a client didn't walk away with almost nothing?"
The answer should be yes. If they've never reduced a fee, they probably never will. That tells you where their priorities are.
Question 4: "Will you negotiate my medical bills and liens down?"
This should be part of their standard practice. If they act like it's unusual or extra work, find a different attorney.
Red Flags: When Your Attorney Isn't Looking Out for You
Watch out for these warning signs:
They won't reduce their fee even when the numbers are terrible. Some attorneys view their percentage as non-negotiable. For them, it's about their paycheck, not your recovery.
They didn't negotiate your bills. If your attorney settles your case and just accepts your medical bills at full value without even trying to negotiate, they didn't do their job.
They seem more excited about the settlement than you are. If you're looking at the numbers thinking "this is terrible" and your attorney is celebrating, your interests aren't aligned.
What Fair Looks Like
Here's the standard an ethical personal injury attorney should meet:
In almost every case, you should recover more than your attorney does. After all, it's your case. You're the one who got hurt. You're the one dealing with the pain, the medical appointments, the recovery time.
The attorney's job is to maximize your recovery and minimize what you owe. If they do that job well, you should walk away with meaningful money in your pocket.
There are rare exceptions. Sometimes a case is so complicated or takes so many hours that the attorney's time investment is enormous. Sometimes a case goes to trial and the verdict is smaller than expected. In those unusual situations, an attorney must explain why the fee structure is different.
But those are exceptions. They're rare. And even then, the attorney should be transparent about it from the beginning.
How We Handle This at Hudson Injury Law
We believe in a simple principle: you should never walk away from your case with less money than we do.
Here's how we make that happen:
We negotiate every bill. Medical providers, hospitals, health insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid - we negotiate with all of them. We've reduced medical bills by 50%, 60%, even 70% in some cases. Every dollar we save on bills is a dollar in your pocket.
We reduce our fee when necessary. If the math doesn't work, we adjust our fee. We've taken 20% instead of 33%. We've taken 15%. We've even waived fees entirely when a client would otherwise walk away with nothing.
We fight for bigger settlements. The best way to make sure you get more than we do is to maximize the settlement. We don't accept lowball offers. We push insurance companies to pay what your case is really worth.
The Bottom Line
If you're worried about hiring an attorney because you think they might make more than you do, you're asking the right question. It shows you're paying attention.
Here's what you need to remember:
An ethical attorney won't let that happen. They'll negotiate your bills down and reduce their fee if needed. They'll make sure the math works in your favor.
If an attorney won't commit to that, find someone else. Your case is too important to work with someone who puts their paycheck ahead of your recovery.
You deserve an attorney who fights as hard to put money in your pocket as they do to earn their own fee. That's not just good ethics. It's basic fairness.
Have questions about attorney fees and what you'll actually recover from your case? Contact Hudson Injury Law for a free, honest consultation. We'll break down the numbers and explain exactly what to expect. No surprises. No fine print. Just straight answers.
