Working with a lawyer is nearly essential in Workers’ Comp if you want your case to succeed. However, you may have concerns about paying for – or affording – a lawyer before you call one.
In Workers’ Comp cases, your lawyer usually works on a contingency fee. This means you pay them nothing up front, and they only get paid if they win your case. At that point, they will get paid for an agreed-upon percentage of your winnings or benefits. Their fee is also capped by law at 20%.
For help with your case and more information, call our Pennsylvania Certified Workers’ Compensation Lawyers for an absolutely free case review at Cardamone Law: (267) 651-7945.
Do I Have to Pay for My Workers’ Comp Lawyer?
Workers’ Comp – previously called Workman’s Comp – is a system that involves employers, the state, and private individuals. While many things are covered under the system, your lawyer is not. However, you do not need to pay up front or out of pocket in most cases.
In a Workers’ Comp case, you typically file notice of your injury with your employer. They then file a claim with their Workers’ Comp insurance carrier, and they deny or accept it. When your claim is denied, you can file a claim with the Workers’ Comp Office of Adjudication, part of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
These parties all have their own part to play, but providing you with a lawyer is not one of them. Instead, you can seek out any Pennsylvania-licensed lawyer you want to work with, and they can represent you in your claim.
How Can I Afford a Lawyer?
In these cases, your employer, their insurance company, and the state department are all separate parties from you, and they usually have more money and access to lawyers than you do. This can make it feel really one-sided, and like you will never be able to compete. However, the way that we hire lawyers in Workers’ Comp claims makes all of that inequality go away.
Your employer and their insurance carrier need to pay for lawyers up front, but you don’t. Instead, most Workers’ Comp lawyers, including ours, work on a contingency fee basis.
This means they get paid from the winnings on your case, and only if you win. That leaves you with nothing to afford up front: no retainer fee, no consultation fee, and no billable hours to pay for before filing your case. Instead, we wait until the end and only get our fee out of your winnings, and only if you win.
How Much is a Contingency Fee?
In other fields of injury law, attorneys can charge any “reasonable” fee.
This often means charging at least 33% of your winnings. In Workers’ Comp claims, lawyers are limited to 20%.
This restriction is in the Workers’ Comp Act itself, clearly stating that lawyers can only charge up to 20%. The fee also needs to be approved by the Workers’ Comp Judge in the case.
This limit applies to all work done before the judge, and the closely monitor these fees.
How Do I Pay My Lawyers?
Your attorneys’ fees come out of your total award at the end of your case. This is paid out of the lump sum settlement if you settle, or from the ongoing benefits if you do not. We can guide you through the specifics in your case as to how we will collect our fees.
Can I Get My Employer to Cover My Attorneys’ Fees?
In some cases, attorneys’ fees can be awarded as part of the winnings in your case. This typically only happens as a penalty against employers who refuse to cooperate or participate in the system as the law requires.
Employers must rely on some reasonable basis when denying claims. Otherwise, they would just deny every claim that comes before them and make everyone go to court to get benefits. Violating this requirement can mean facing penalties.
Attorneys’ fees are a common penalty the employer pays if they deny your claim without good cause. Penalties can also be assessed when employers otherwise violate the rules, such as by refusing to rule on your claim within the required period and simply ignoring your filings.
How Do I Pay for Evidence Collection and Research?
Part of building your case will be collecting evidence. This could mean going to doctors’ appointments with physicians we choose, so they can build a record of your condition and physical limitations. It might also involve depositions of witnesses – interviews done in either side’s law offices.
All of these have a cost associated, and much of this evidence collection is expensive. However, we can often pay for these costs up front, then reclaim those expenses when we win the case. The court can order the defendant to pay for these expenses when we win, covering these costs without you paying anything toward them.
Can I Get Other Damages in My Workers’ Comp Case?
Our Philadelphia Workers’ Comp lawyers also help with other injury claims. In some injury cases, you can file a Workers’ Comp claim to get your medical bills and wage-loss benefits flowing, then worry about seeking other damages from the at-fault party in a lawsuit.
Your employer is required to pay Workers’ Comp benefits even if someone else was responsible for the accident. While we cannot sue your employer, we may be able to sue some other at-fault party, getting pain and suffering and other damages (such as your remaining lost wages) from them.
We can help with that case, too. That has its own contingency fee, meaning you once again pay nothing unless you win.
When you pursue both a Workers’ Compensation claim and an injury lawsuit, you may get compensated for some benefits twice, meaning you would have to pay back the insurance carrier for some of these costs. In any case, this still typically leaves you with more winnings, even once you factor in attorneys’ fees.
Call Our Workman’s Comp Lawyers in Pennsylvania Today
If you were hurt in a work accident, call Cardamone Law’s Hellertown, PA Workers’ Comp attorneys at (267) 651-7945.
