When someone comes looking for a medical malpractice lawyer they have likely already been put through the worst experience of their life. This could mean permanent impairment, disability, or loss of a loved one. Often the medical bills are incredibly high, and even though health insurance is picking up most of the payments (as they are obligated to), the out of pocket expenses remain daunting. Perhaps someone is unable to work anymore, so has lost a stream of income. In the face of all these mounting bills, how much does a medical malpractice lawyer cost?
We handle all of our cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that we are paid exclusively out of the settlement or jury verdict. That means that we don’t saddle our clients, who have already so many financial pressures on their shoulders, with additional burden of paying an hourly rate to their lawyer to get them the justice they deserve. Keep in mind that it regularly costs more than $50,000 to bring a case all the way through to a jury verdict. The contingency fee system allows for everyone to have access to justice, no matter their financial means.
Folks injured by medical malpractice face long odds in trial, to be frank. Even in King County, defendant medical providers win at trial about 90% of the time. That means that by the time the case has worked its way through all phases of discovery, all attempts to resolve the case via settlement have been exhausted, plaintiffs win only 10% of the time or less. And that is King County. There are some counties in Washington that likely have never seen a plaintiff win a medical malpractice trial.
This also means that medical malpractice lawyers need to be very conservative in the cases we accept. We are, after all, advancing all of these costs to file the case, find and hire the experts, depose the defense experts, and prepare exhibits for trial. We invest a lot of time and money in getting the case prepared to hand it over to a jury to decide if the medical providers’ errors caused our client’s substantial, or often devastating, injuries.
