Personal Injury Attorney Ben Schwartz answers a question from his son, Charlie. Charlie would like to know…How much does it cost to hire a personal injury lawyer?

Hey folks, I’m Attorney Ben Schwartz,

Today I have a special guest, this is my son Charlie Schwartz. Charlie has a very important question that he is dying to ask me about the practice of personal injury law.

Ben: What question would you like to ask me today, Charlie?

Charlie: I broke my arm and now I need you to sue somebody for them breaking my arm. How much would that cost?

Ben: How much would it cost? Well for you, it would cost a million dollars.

But normally to answer your question and be serious with the answer, the answer is that normally when you hire a personal injury lawyer for a broken arm or a broken leg or an ACL tear, you don’t hire the lawyer and pay them the million dollars.

What you do is, you hire the lawyer on what is called a contingency fee, meaning that the lawyer takes a percentage of whatever the verdict or the settlement is, and that percentage can vary. It varies on the type of case. It varies on the jurisdiction that you are in but those percentages on attorneys’ contingency fees can go anywhere between 25% and 50% of whatever the settlement or the award is.

Charlie: Wow! So, if I sue them for two dogs, you might get half of a dog?

Ben: I guess that would be true if you are on a 25% contingency fee basis, but usually we don’t accept dogs in a settlement. Usually, we are looking for cash payments in a settlement.

So, good question. I think at least the first one was pretty good, and I want to thank you for being on my video today Charlie.

Folks if you are watching this video, if you have a question that relates to personal injury, or wrongful death litigation, please feel free to send me an email. My email address is ben.schwartz@schwartzandschwartz.com

Thanks for watching!