Claims personnel are often given big financial incentives to underpay claims. When someone stands up to the insurance company, the insurer pays 100% of the defense of their insured (the person who carelessly caused your injury). The insurer has an unending supply of skilled and energetic lawyers who get paid for knocking down claims, including the most righteous of claims.
The insurer has a stable of doctors who can be counted on to say the injuries are less serious than they really are. The insurer gets to handpick the doctor for your case and can make you submit to an examination -- even if the insurer knows in advance what the doctor will say, because it's what that doctor says about everyone sent in by an insurance company. A willing doctor can make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in extra income just by being a dependable source of favorable opinions for insurers.
The insurance companies have billions of dollars and you don't -- so they'll try to wear you down financially and emotionally by increasing the expense and delay before trial. Most people can't cross the legal wilderness on their own -- folks need a trustworthy guide. Someone with the experience, savvy and guts to get you past the chasms and quicksand, to fight off the wolves and bears, and who knows the paths to get you out of the wilderness safely and as quickly as possible.
Why do injury lawyers charge a percentage of the recovery?
Most folks would have no ability to hire a lawyer otherwise -- the going rate for an attorney's time is hundreds of dollars per hour. Percentage fees are also contingent, meaning if there is no recovery there is no fee. Furthermore, at Plattner Verderame, PC we advance the costs needed to process the case: things like fees to experts, court reporters, process servers, etc. These costs that we spend are like a no-interest loan to our clients -- if we win we get repaid, but if there is no recovery we eat the costs. Thus, the contingent fee is the ordinary person's key to the courthouse.
