Lawyers work on a contingency fee, usually one third of the damage recovery. In other words, the client does not have to pay attorney's fees up front; if the client is not awarded damages, the attorney does not get paid attorneys' fees.

Hancock & Hancock, P.A. represents their clients under the contingency fee contract approved by the Florida Supreme Court. This means that our clients do not pay money at the beginning of the case - the attorneys get paid only if they recover money for you, either by settlement or jury verdict. You do not pay anything at the beginning of the representation; however, when there is a settlement or verdict you will pay the attorneys a percentage of the money you receive if you win the case or if you settle the matter out of court, in addition to court costs advanced by the law firm. If there is no money recovered for you, you do not pay attorneys' fees or costs.

How Is A Fee Determined?

The percentage of attorneys' fees is determined at what point the recovery of money for you occurs. Our contingency fee contract provides attorneys' fees of 33 1/3% of the recovery prior to the filing of a lawsuit, what is referred to as "pre-suit" or "pre-litigation," up through the time that an answer to the lawsuit is filed by the defendant, in addition to the recovery of court costs advanced by the firm. If the case has not settled prior to this point, then the percentage increases to 40% of the recovery, through the end of trial, in addition to the recovery of court costs advanced by the firm.

As with attorneys' fees, you do not have to pay the court costs incurred in pursuing your case at the beginning of our representation. We do not require such a "costs retainer" as some law firms do. However, as with attorneys fees, if we obtain a money recovery for you, whether by settlement or jury verdict, we are reimbursed the court costs that our firm has advanced. And of course, if there is no recovery, we do not seek our advanced court costs from our clients. Examples of such court costs include the following: filing fees (filing fees are required by courts before they will accept legal papers); expert fees (experts and consultants charge for their time in evaluating cases and testifying in court); fees to obtain medical records; postage; copy charges; deposition fees (certified court reporters charge for taking down testimony at depositions and for providing written transcripts of that testimony), etc. Generally, we try to keep your advanced costs down to a minimum in the pre-suit and early litigation stages, so as to maximize your recovery.

To get your case started today, contact us today at (813) 229-1110 or fill out our online consultation and we'll contact you.