What to Watch Out for Before You Sign With an Injury Attorney
When you are dealing with the aftermath of an accident, the last thing you should have to worry about is whether your own attorney is taking advantage of you. Insurance companies are already working against you. Your attorney should not be. At Bowers Law in Elkton, Joe Bowers has started seeing a troubling pattern in representation agreements from other law firms: hidden fees, questionable charges, and interest-bearing expense clauses buried in the fine print. Before you sign anything, here is what to look for.
Understanding How Contingency Fees Are Supposed to Work
Injury attorneys generally do not charge by the hour or collect a flat rate upfront. Instead, they work on a contingency fee basis, which means the attorney collects a percentage of the final recovery only if they win. No money is owed until the case is resolved in your favor. This model exists because most people who have been in accidents are dealing with mounting medical bills, a vehicle out of commission, and lost income all at once. Dropping thousands of dollars on an attorney in that situation makes no sense for most people. The contingency fee is supposed to align the attorney’s interests with yours: when you win, they win.
The problem is that some attorneys are layering additional fees on top of that contingency arrangement in ways that can quietly cost injured clients real money.
The Administrative Fee Problem
One fee that has started appearing in representation agreements is a flat administrative fee, sometimes around $250, tacked on for vague reasons related to case setup or paperwork. The issue is straightforward. If an attorney is working on a contingency basis, they have already accepted the risk of the case. Mixing a flat fee into a contingency arrangement is ethically questionable and runs counter to the entire philosophy of the contingency model. Either you believe in the case enough to take it, or you do not. Charging an administrative fee on top of a percentage of the recovery is having it both ways.
Charging Fees to Handle Personal Injury Protection Claims
Another area to watch is whether an attorney is charging a separate flat fee to handle the personal injury protection portion of your claim. Maryland’s ethics rules make clear that attorneys are not permitted to charge a fee for handling an uncontested PIP claim. PIP coverage is relatively straightforward in most cases: you present your bills or lost wages, and the insurer sends the check. There is rarely a meaningful dispute. If a dispute does arise and litigation becomes necessary, that is a different situation. But collecting a fee simply to set up and present an uncontested PIP claim crosses into a gray area that clients should push back on.
Interest on Advanced Expenses: The Fee That Grows While You Wait
In injury cases, attorneys routinely advance expenses on behalf of clients. These include fees for obtaining medical records, costs associated with filing a lawsuit, and payments to medical experts who testify about your injuries. Being reimbursed for those expenses out of the final settlement is standard practice, and there is nothing wrong with it.
What is not standard, and what has started appearing in some representation agreements, is an interest charge on top of those advanced expenses. When an attorney charges interest on expenses, a clock starts running the moment those costs are incurred. The longer your case takes to resolve, the more money flows out of your recovery and into the attorney’s pocket.
Some of this comes from attorneys who have a line of credit with a litigation funding company and are passing that interest cost directly to the client. But if you are in the contingency fee business, accepting the financial risk of a case is part of the arrangement. Charging the client interest on top of the percentage recovery is, in effect, treating yourself like a bank while still collecting a contingency fee. Read your representation agreement carefully and make sure there is no interest-bearing expense clause before you sign.
How to Spot These Fees Before You Commit
Think about how junk fees appear on your electric bill: line items with vague descriptions that quietly add up. The same thing can happen in a representation agreement. Here is what to look for before you sign with any injury attorney:
Look for any flat fee charges listed alongside the contingency percentage. Ask what they are for and whether they can be removed. Look for language about interest accruing on advanced expenses. If you see it, ask the attorney to explain it and consider whether you want to sign an agreement that includes it. Look for fees tied to PIP claims or other administrative tasks that feel like they should already be covered by the contingency arrangement.
There are plenty of qualified injury attorneys who do not use these tactics. You do not need to work with the ones who do.
Let Bowers Law Fight for the Compensation You Deserve
If you have been injured in an accident in Maryland, the attorneys at Bowers Law are ready to help you navigate every step of the process with full transparency about how fees work and what you can expect. Contact our Elkton office today for a free consultation and find out how we can put our experience to work for you.
"*" indicates required fields