When you hire us, you don’t pay us anything upfront. We represent individuals against corporations and governments—powerful entities that have the resources defend their conduct. The families we represent often do not have the same resources and are struggling with the consequences of personal injury or medical malpractice. We do not charge our families anything unless we recover something for them.
In our private cases, our standard fee is 33⅓% to 45% of what we recover. This fee will depend upon whether we are representing children, how complicated the case is, and the risk we take on by pursuing the case. The fee may increase depending on whether we must take your case through trial or appeal. But our fee is paid out of what we recover for you. If we don’t recover anything, you don’t pay any fee.
How much does it cost to hire a lawyer to sue the VA, Army, or Navy?
If a doctor, nurse, or other employee at a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital or a military hospital hurt you or a family member, you might have to sue in federal court under a law called the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA).
The fee charged for these cases is limited to:
- 20% of any settlement reached during the administrative claim stage. Every FTCA case starts by filing a claim with the agency, like the VA, Army, or Navy. If the agency agrees to pay before a lawsuit is filed, the lawyer can take no more than 20%.
- 25% of any settlement or judgment after a lawsuit is filed in federal court.
Like private cases, our clients pay us nothing upfront. We don’t charge a fee unless we recover money for you.
Why is the fee different for an FTCA lawsuit?
The fees in an FTCA case are set by federal law and cannot be increased either by the lawyer or the client. In a case with a non-governmental defendant, the lawyer and client agree on the fee based on the prevailing rates, the complexity of the case, and the risk taken on by the law firm.
Who pays the costs of bringing a lawsuit?
Attorney fees and case costs are two different things. The fee pays the lawyer for their work and the risks associated with the case. Costs are usually paid out-of-pocket and necessary to prove your case and recover any money. Clients do not pay litigation expenses upfront either. National Trial Law advances the costs required to prosecute your case. When a case resolves, we deduct costs from your recovery. If we don’t recover anything for you, you don’t pay any costs.
Common case costs
Catastrophic injury and medical malpractice cases are expensive to prove. Here are some costs that regularly occur in our cases:
- Expert witness fees. We take catastrophic injury cases, whether they are personal injury or medical malpractice. In these cases, there are issues that often require expert proof. For example, in a medical malpractice case, we need a doctor to tell us whether the defendant breached the standard of care. In any serious injury case, we retain life care planners, economists, and other damages experts to help us and the jury understand the full consequences of the defendant’s negligence. Experts charge for reviewing records, writing reports, preparing for depositions, and testifying at trial. They are charging for the time they take away from their private practices to help us prove our case.
- Medical records. Hospitals and providers charge to copy and certify records. A serious injury case can involve thousands of pages from many providers.
- Filing fees. Courts charge fees for plaintiffs to file a lawsuit, and we have to pay those fees up front.
- Service of process. After you file a lawsuit, you have to notify the defendants that are you suing them. The formal process of sending the lawsuit to the defendant is called “service of process.” This costs money because you want to prove that the defendant was properly served and notified of the lawsuit—otherwise you cannot pursue your claims. If you have sued the VA, Army or other federal agency, you have special rules of service that involve serving the local U.S. Attorney where the lawsuit is filed and the Attorney General of the United States of America in Washington, DC.
- Depositions. Sometimes, you need to get information from the defendant or witnesses, and this is done using a deposition. A deposition is a formal conversation under oath to record a witness’s testimony. The court reporters and videographers who record the testimony charge for their time and the transcripts and videos they produce.
- Travel. To prosecute your case, sometimes your lawyer needs to travel to where the witnesses or the evidence are located. The airfare, hotels, and mileage for depositions, expert meetings, and trial are paid upfront by us.
- Mediation. At some point, the court may order you to mediate your case or the parties may agree that mediation can be helpful to resolve the case. Butmediators charge for their time, and National Trial Law pays those fees upfront.
- Trial. One of the most expensive parts of bringing a claim is going to trial. Experts often charge by the day. We must create trial exhibits. This could be as simple as providing copies of the medical records or other evidence we’ve collected. Or it could involve the design of medical illustrations, diagrams, animation, or other visual aids to help the explain to the jury your case.
if a catastrophic injury or medical malpractice case goes to trial, the associated costs can escalate significantly—even reaching into the six figures. This underscores the critical importance of engaging a law firm with the necessary resources pursue complex cases.
How much does the client pay?
You pay nothing up front and nothing out of pocket while the case is pending. At the end, the attorney fee and case costs come out of the recovery. The rest goes to you. Sometimes, the law requires us to repay health insurers, Medicare, or Medicaid for medical bills they covered.
Here is a simple example of an FTCA medical malpractice case that settles for $1,000,000 after a lawsuit is filed:
Item | Amount |
Settlement | $1,000,000 |
Attorney fee (25%) | – $250,000 |
Case costs (example) | – $100,000 |
Net to the client | $650,000 |
At the end of a case, we will send you a letter called a Disbursement Letter that breaks down your recovery and itemizes the costs incurred on your behalf.
What if there are multiple lawyers involved in my case? Do you pay more?
No. If we team up with another lawyer or law firm to help prosecute your case, we may split the attorney’s fee between the law firms. It’s customary sometimes to have a referring lawyer, a local counsel, and sometimes even appellate counsel. But no matter how large the team is working on your behalf or what the fee split is, the fee split does not change the total amount you pay out of any recovery. And the fee split does not require you to pay any money up front for fees or the expenses of litigation.
Contact National Trial Law
To learn more about your legal options, contact National Trial Law today at (833) 913-1885.