When I Get A Settlement, How Much Do I, the Client, Actually Get?

Medical malpractice can be a devastating event for a family to suffer through. The ability to bring a lawsuit is often dictated by the amount a person will be able to recover. It is important that the attorney is up front with the client about the costs of his services. Also, the ideal attorney should work as efficiently as possible to receive the highest amount recoverable in the shortest amount of time.

Attorneys Fee Structure
When a malpractice suit is brought, the majority of attorneys will work on a contingency fee basis. The percentage of the attorney’s fee often varies dependent upon the work put into the case. For example, the percentage of the fee typically increases when the lawyer has to take the case to trial compared to getting the case settled out of court or at mediation. This is due to the proportionate amount of costs and labor the attorney expends in the different stages of pursuing a claim.

Despite the overblown reporting of large verdicts in the media, the typical amount of recovery in a medical malpractice claim is significantly lower. With legislative caps on non-economic damages and stricter rules concerning the recovery of medical expenses, the awards in medical malpractice cases are often very correlative to the amount of medical expenses incurred. Some attorneys will attempt to work-up cases by encouraging a client to visit more doctors and receive more treatments than necessary in order to increase the amount of recoverable medical expenses. However, this can end up lowering the client’s recovery while increasing the fee collected by the lawyer.

Typical Range of Attorney Contingency Fees
A victim of medical malpractice should inquire about the fees the attorney will charge for their services, including the different percentages. The client should keep in mind that regardless of outstanding medical expenses, the attorney’s fee is taken out first from any amount that is recovered. Typically, an attorney’s contingency fee ranges from 33% to 45%. If an attorney encourages a client to visit more medical providers than necessary to increase recoverable medical expenses, then the attorney’s percentage will increase and the client might end up owing more than they receive from the recovery.

Costs of Litigation
Following the attorney’s fee, the next amounts deducted from the recovery are the costs of litigation. These can include the attorney’s travel expenses, costs for hiring experts to evaluate the case, costs of obtaining medical records, and the like. After the litigation costs, any money prepaid to the client is taken from the amount recovered. These can include loans the attorney makes to the client or money the attorney pays up front for the client to obtain additional medical treatment. This is the area where the attorney may be willing to front the costs in order to work-up the case value, which as stated above, is mostly increasing the attorney’s fee more than anything else.

Conclusion
What all this means for the victim of medical malpractice is that there are a number of costs of bringing a lawsuit, so it is important for a client to ask their attorney what their expenses are going to look like. A good attorney should be as up front as possible with the client so they have a clear picture of what the attorney is providing for them in order to maximize their recovery from the misfortune of the incident they are suffering from.