Fees

The Fee Policy. Printed, Like We Promised.

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
— Seneca

Most injury firms charge one-third to forty percent of your recovery, and the percentage climbs as the case drags on. Ours works the other way: the faster your case resolves, the less we take — because speed should benefit the person who was hurt, not the office billing for time.

The Schedule

There is no pre-suit rate because there are no pre-suit cases here — we file. Insurers do not pay maximum value to a demand letter.

Employment cases run on the same schedule, with one addition: when the law makes the employer pay the attorney’s fees, we take the greater of the two — never both.

Clients under eighteen pay less: 23 to 25 percent on the same milestones, and a judge approves every dollar.

The Parity Promise

If your case resolves more than sixty days before trial, our fee will never exceed what you actually take home after costs and liens. If the arithmetic ever puts the office ahead of the client, the fee comes down until it doesn’t.

If We Lose

You owe nothing. No fee, and no repayment of the costs we advanced. That risk is ours — and it’s why we say no to cases we don’t believe in.

What It Looks Like in Dollars

On a $300,000 settlement reached after filing but before depositions, the fee is $87,000. The same settlement signed on the courthouse steps at an industry-standard 40% would be $120,000. Same injury, same money — a $33,000 difference, and it stays with the client.

Costs

Filing fees, records, depositions, experts. We advance all of them, and we keep them down — email instead of postage, no unnecessary hearings, no transcripts until they’re needed. Lower costs mean a higher payout, and the habit is printed in the retainer too.

Consultations

Every case starts with a text. 559-PIGSFLY (744-7359), any hour, anywhere in California — describe what happened and you’ll get an honest answer, free, usually the same day.

If it’s a mission case — catastrophic injury, sexual abuse, toxic exposure, workplace rights, an impact or animal case — the in-person consultation is free too.

Everything else — family law, criminal defense, the case a former client sent you here about — is a $200 in-person consultation. Most of this work arrives by referral: former clients sending people they care about. The universe has decent aim, and we trust it.

Two doors stay closed: probate, and pure child-support enforcement. Rooms where the whole fight is money are rooms we leave to others.

The Whole Agreement

Here’s the actual agreement, unedited — the same document every injury and employment client signs: Download the Fee Agreement (PDF) . The fee is not set by law and is negotiable — that sentence is in the agreement because the State Bar requires it, and on this page because it’s true.

Attorney advertising. Every case is different. Percentages apply to the gross recovery; the example is illustrative, not a prediction or a guarantee of outcome.