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Personal injury cases are about people.
That may sound obvious, but it is something I try not to lose sight of when dealing with insurance companies, medical bills, liens, litigation expenses, attorney’s fees, and all the other numbers that can become part of a personal injury claim.
At the end of the day, there is a person behind those numbers. That person was injured. That person went to the doctor. That person dealt with the pain, inconvenience, missed work, stress, and disruption caused by an accident.
That is why I have a simple philosophy when it comes to attorney’s fees:
I do not want my attorney’s fee to be more than what my client ultimately receives from the settlement.
Every case is different, and there can be unusual circumstances. But as a general principle, I believe a personal injury settlement should make sense for the client—not just the lawyer.
Most personal injury attorneys, including our firm, handle cases on a contingency fee basis.
That generally means the client does not pay an attorney’s fee upfront. Instead, the attorney receives an agreed-upon percentage of the recovery if the case is successfully resolved.
This arrangement can be extremely helpful to injured people. Someone who has just been in a serious car accident may already be dealing with medical expenses, lost wages, vehicle repairs, and other financial pressures. A contingency fee allows that person to hire an attorney without having to pay hourly legal fees while the case is pending.
But the attorney’s fee is only one part of the settlement equation.
There may also be medical bills, health insurance reimbursement claims, hospital liens, case expenses, and other amounts that need to be addressed before the client receives the final proceeds.
That is why the gross settlement number does not tell the whole story.
Suppose a case settles for $100,000.
It can be tempting to focus entirely on that $100,000 number. But the better question is:
How much will the client actually receive?
Attorney’s fees may come out of the settlement. Case expenses may need to be reimbursed. Medical providers or health insurers may have claims that need to be resolved.
The amount left after those deductions is the client’s net recovery.
That number matters to me.
Of course, attorneys should be fairly compensated for their work. Personal injury cases can require substantial time, resources, financial risk, and responsibility. Some cases take years to resolve and require lawsuits, depositions, experts, mediation, extensive discovery, and even a jury trial.
But I also try to remember who actually experienced the injury.
The client did.
The lawyer did not experience the collision.
The lawyer did not ride in the ambulance.
The lawyer did not undergo the MRI, physical therapy, injections, surgery, or other medical treatment.
The lawyer did not miss the family event because of pain or have trouble sleeping after the accident.
The lawyer did not have to rearrange work and family responsibilities around medical appointments.
The client did.
That perspective is important to me when a case reaches the settlement stage.
A settlement should not simply look good on paper. We need to understand what it means for the person we represent after the fees, expenses, and outstanding medical obligations are considered.
Getting an insurance company to pay a fair settlement is only part of our job.
Once a settlement is reached, there may still be significant work to do.
For example, there may be outstanding medical bills that can sometimes be negotiated. There may be liens or reimbursement claims that need to be verified and addressed. There may also be questions about health insurance payments or other deductions from the settlement.
Reducing a legitimate medical bill or lien can sometimes put additional money directly into the client’s pocket.
That is why I believe the final stages of a personal injury case deserve careful attention.
A lawyer should not simply obtain a settlement, deduct the contractual attorney’s fee and expenses, pay whatever bills happen to be sitting in the file, and consider the job finished.
Where appropriate, we look at whether outstanding balances or liens can be reduced so the client can keep more of the recovery.
There is another practical reason I pay attention to whether my fee would exceed my client’s net recovery: it is a useful reality check.
If the lawyer is going to walk away with more money than the injured client, I think that deserves a closer look.
Why is the client’s recovery being reduced so significantly?
Are there medical bills that can legitimately be negotiated?
Are all of the claimed liens valid?
Have the case expenses been carefully reviewed?
Is there anything else we can reasonably do to improve the client’s net recovery?
Sometimes there may be circumstances that cannot be changed. Every case has its own facts, contractual terms, medical expenses, insurance issues, and legal complications.
But I believe those questions are worth asking.
You will often see personal injury cases described by their gross settlement amounts:
“$100,000 settlement.”
“$250,000 settlement.”
“$1 million recovery.”
Those numbers can provide useful information, but they do not tell you what the client actually received.
A large settlement with enormous medical expenses may produce a smaller net recovery than someone might expect. A more modest settlement with carefully managed expenses and successfully negotiated medical balances may result in a much better outcome for the client.
That is why I try to look beyond the headline number.
What did this case actually accomplish for our client?
That is the question that matters.
When someone hires a personal injury lawyer, they are trusting that lawyer with an important part of their life.
They may be injured, worried about their finances, unfamiliar with the legal system, and unsure what their case is worth.
That creates a responsibility that I take seriously.
Our fee agreement explains how attorney’s fees and expenses are handled, and I believe clients should understand those terms from the beginning. I also believe they should understand the numbers when their case concludes.
When we prepare a settlement statement, I want the client to be able to see where the money is going and why.
Transparency matters.
At Kevin Patrick Law, my goal is not simply to obtain the largest gross settlement number we can advertise.
My goal is to obtain a meaningful result for the person who trusted us with the case.
That means looking at the entire picture: the settlement, attorney’s fees, case expenses, medical bills, liens, and ultimately the amount that goes to the client.
As a general philosophy, I do not want my attorney’s fee to exceed my client’s net recovery.
There may be exceptional cases where circumstances make the math more complicated, and no two personal injury cases are identical. But I think the principle behind it is important.
The client is the one who was injured.
The client is the reason we have the case.
And when the case is finished, I want the result to reflect that.
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