Our Fees

HOW OUR FEES WORK

• We don’t get paid unless you get paid.
• We are paid a percentage of the settlement or verdict we win for you.
• We pay all the upfront costs of preparing a strong case for you. These are later deducted from your recovery amount.

At Edelman & Thompson, we believe strongly that everyone deserves access to our legal system. That’s why we work for our clients on a contingency fee basis. We front the cost of preparing a strong case for you. If we are successful in obtaining a settlement or verdict for our clients, our fee is a percentage of that recovery. On work injury cases, our fee is 25%. On most other cases that settle, the fee is 33 1/3%, which is much less than the 40 or 50% charged by some other law firms. We are reimbursed for our out-of-pocket expenses only if we win your case.

You’ve got nothing to lose, so call us for free at 816-561-3400. You’ll speak to one of our highly experienced lawyers about your situation. You’ll understand what to do next, even if you don’t end up needing a lawyer. If you think you might need a lawyer, you can meet with one of our attorneys for free, with no obligation.

If you prefer to submit your case for review, an attorney will call you back after you complete this form.

Lastly, for our 33 1/3% fee cases, if the case goes to trial (Only about 1% do), our contingency fee increases to 40% to cover 1) Additional time to prepare for trial, 2) The additional risk incurred in putting your case in front of a jury. But again, if we don’t win, you don’t get charged a dime, not even for expenses that we fronted including expert testimony, accident reconstruction, exhibit visuals and videos, and much more.

Contingency Fee Examples

• For a case where your settlement is $40,000, 33.33% is $13,332, leaving you with $26,668.
• If the fee were 40%, like some firms charge, that would be $16,000, leaving you with just $24,000; that’s $2,668 that could’ve been yours.

The contingency fee is critical to ensuring that everyone, not just the wealthy, can obtain the legal representation they need and deserve. Without it, insurance companies would know that they could stall cases and increase legal costs against injured people who don’t have the resources to pay upfront fees to attorneys and, ultimately, force them to quit their case or settle for less than they deserve.

Representation by a Contingency Fee Lawyer Can Make a Difference

Another important consideration is that the insurance industry performed a study (The Insurance Research Council) and found that, on average, individuals who were represented by an attorney received three times the amount that individuals who handled their own case, even after attorney fees were deducted. The results of the study were published in a report titled Attorney Involvement in Auto Injury Claims. Granted, there are some situations where having an attorney will not add value to your case. We will tell you if that is the situation.