Why does an accident & injury lawyer, who works for 1/3 of what your settlement is, ends up with more of the settlement than me?

Look at your contract out of pocket cost and expenses should come off the top.then usually 1/3

Every retainer agreement I've seen calls for deduction of costs off the top then a percentage of the remainder as the attorney fee. I don't know what a case handling fee is but chart swap is a medical records provider. Laws vary by state so seek confirmation from TX counsel.

You need to look at your retainer agreement, which is a binding contract between you and your attorney before you take any further action. That explains precisely what the attorney is due and what you are due along the lines of a personal injury settlement. After reviewing your retainer agreement, since you have already hired an attorney, you need to discuss this with him or her, as he or she is the most knowledgeable about your particular case. Call the office and set up a time to go over your case in your attorney’s office. Don’t take no for an answer as to scheduling an in-office appointment. This, after all, is the reason you are paying your attorney. In my opinion, any further statement from me on would be inappropriate since you are already represented. If after talking to your attorney, you are not satisfied with the answer your attorney gives you, or if the attorney refuses to meet with you, consult with another attorney in your area to go over any potential legal options you may have regarding this issue. You are free to consult with another attorney and even fire your current attorney if you so desire. You can use the “Find a lawyer” link at the top of the screen for the names of other attorneys near you. Please do not message me for further advice or call my former law firm if you have any further questions. If you are in need of an attorney to assist you, please search for another attorney in the jurisdiction involved in your case, as I am now retired, and my former law firm is no longer handling these types of cases. I am active on and answer questions only as a public service at this point. IMPORTANT: No attorney-client relationship is formed through interaction with this attorney on this public forum. The contents of any comment or response should be considered general conversational discourse on the topic identified and NOT specific legal advice or analysis that might apply to your situation. If you rely upon any part of the content of this response in making any decision or pursuing any course of action, you do so at your own risk and without recourse against this attorney or law firm. Good luck!

An attorney’s fee is typically 1/3 pre-litigation and 40% after a case is filed (plus costs) - this is a contingency fee agreement. The ‘plus costs’ is reimbursing the attorney for money spent to pursue your case. Keep in mind, if your case went south, the attorney loses all the costs he/she has invested. The attorney is taking the risk, which can be a lot of money gone. The 40% is the attorney’s paycheck, which he/she doesn’t collect until the case is over, and (again) if it goes south, the attorney doesn’t get that check. It’s a risk attorneys take to help clients and get paid. When you’re hurt in a wreck, you need medical help. This can be paid for in a few ways: insurance, letters of protection (LOP), out of your pocket or just not paid until money is available. There are often laws that require your attorney to pay these bills with the money received (you can thank your republican legislators for this), and there are often laws that require your attorney to pay back the insurance company money it’s paid for your medical help (again, thank you republican legislators). [it is important to know the Texas Supreme Court (all republicans) struck down a law that let plaintiffs not be required to pay back the insurance company and others In full - it was a law called ‘made-whole’. There was no real rational in striking it down except to make sure insurance companies and others got some of your money]. Note, your bills would go unpaid (put on your credit report or still owed by you) without money from your case that the attorney gets for you. So, it may appear the attorney is getting more than you when actually your getting your bills paid (didn’t use to have to pay as much as is now required - see above for how the Republican legislature and republican courts hurt you on this). If you get $100,000 on a case and your attorney spent $5000 to make that happen, your getting $55,000 and your attorney is getting $45,000 ($5,000 is just paying him back). The rest of the money your missing is used to pay medical bills or pay back your insurance. This situation could be better if we’d reinstate the made-whole doctrine where you would not have to necessarily pay back insurance or pay back all of the over priced medical costs. Please know, attorneys do their best to maximize the client’s return - the more they make you, the more they make themselves. As to costs, they should be able to show where each expense occurred. Please understand getting records can be expensive - some medical providers charge hundreds of dollars for copies. Look at each of these and feel free to ask about them. It’s likely you’ll see your attorney did his/her best to watch these expenses (especially since it’s money out of their pocket that goes away until they get you some kind of settlement or judgment). Talk to your attorney. That’s always best. Do understand asking the attorney to cut his percentage is the same as if your boss comes to you and ask you to take less in your check after you’ve done the work. It is disheartening to see your money seem to go away, but how much would you have (and still owe) without the attorney’s help?

I agree with many of things that my colleagues have said - but one thing to consider is that the lawyer is not making more than you. Firstly, you listed "medical" expenses of 6100. Those are medical bills the lawyer is required to pay, usually as the result of an Assignment that you have signed. The lawyer is not getting that money. Your settlement is for 2/3s of the proceeds, the lawyer getting the remaining 1/3. However, there are bills that need to be paid, which do come out of your settlement. You may be walking away with less, but that does not mean that you "got" less, or that the lawyer "got" more. Try to remember that, for example, without the medical bills in question, the insurance company might have valued your case far lower than it did.

Mr. Matthews provided a very excellent detailed explanation. The "deductions" are what it cost to prepare your file for a settlement demand to the insurance company, More importantly, in your case, the "deductions" included the medical treatment you received. To add perspective, your expenses were very low. Most of our car accident cases average $500.00 for collecting the bills and records alone, in our trucking cases, it's nothing to have expenses over $50,000.00 for records, depositions, experts, etc. Bottom Line: Call your lawyer and speak directly with him. total deductions $12,444.66 due to client $5220.34. Why is the lawyer getting more than me. He should take care of the deductions or we split them in half but he shouldn't b getting more money than me. Can you explain this to me, PLEASE