The Cost of a Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Personal Injury Lawyer

When someone you love dies because someone else was negligent, the situation can take a toll on your life and the life of your family members. In addition to the mental and emotional impact it has on a person, you suddenly have funeral and burial expenses, lost wages to make up for, and often medical expenses to pay for from the time the victim spent fighting for his or her life. You shouldn’t have to tackle those high costs when someone else was responsible. Filing a wrongful death lawsuit might be your best option, but what will that cost you?

Contingency Fees for a Lawyer

The good news is most wrongful death lawyers, like one from Barry P. Goldberg, A Professional Law Corporation, work on a contingency fee basis. This means the attorney fee is contingent upon you winning the case. If the case is not won, the attorney doesn’t collect any fees. Because this is a financial risk to the attorney, most of them won’t take a case unless they are confident they will win. That’s a really good sign if a lawyer decides to take your case.

Most contingency fees are a certain percentage of the settlement, which is often between 30% and 40%. If you won a settlement of $50,000 and the contingency fee was 40%, the lawyer would take $20,000 before you would see any of the money yourself. In some cases, there’s a stipulation that the lawyer takes a certain percentage if the case is settled outside of court, but is given a higher percentage if the case goes to court. This is a reasonable arrangement, as most cases that go to court end up taking a longer amount of time and more resources.

Additional Costs

There are always additional costs that seem to creep up, and many of them are not included in the contingency fee. When you file a wrongful death case, you have to pay the filing fee at the courthouse. There are other administrative costs as well, so you could be paying for copying, witness statements, expert testimony, investigative costs and more. You should work out these details with your lawyer before moving ahead so you know exactly what to expect. You could end up paying thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for administrative fees.

Getting a Lawyer Involved

Wrongful death is hard to deal with, but you don’t have to do it alone. If someone you know and love was the victim of a wrongful death, contact a lawyer today to get him or her involved in the case.