Legal fees are charged by lawyers on an hourly rate basis or on a percentage (contingency fee) basis. In our firm, our usual practice is to charge on a percentage (contingency fee) basis.
Your first call to us and initial interview will be free of charge. If you decide to hire us to work on your claim on a contingency fee basis, our fee will be based on a fixed percentage of what we collect for you at the resolution of your case. Our fees are very competitive. When we get you a settlement or Judgment (before trial or at trial respectively), our fees will be 30% plus HST. So, for example, if the settlement or Judgment is $10,000 for your injuries, our fee will be $3,000, plus disbursements (expenses) and HST.
No matter what firm you decide to retain, always check to see if the firm has an escalating fee structure which can increase up to one third your claim if it goes to court. At Hoogbruin & Company our percentage will never increase even if your case goes to trial.
With a contingency fee agreement, if we do not recover anything you do not pay a fee. We usually also pay the disbursements associated with running your case until it resolves. This includes court filing fees, the cost of expert reports, private investigators, etc. At the conclusion of your case we claim most of these expenses from the insurance company, so you only pay a small portion of them out of your settlement. If you have questions about our fee structure, please give us a call.