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Catastrophic injury lawyer fees and contingency

The percentage is not the number that matters. What matters is the arithmetic that runs from the gross recovery down to the figure that reaches your bank account, and there are three separate deductions along the way that most people only discover at the end. This guide works through that sequence, sets out what a lawyer may and may not charge you for, and explains what the conduct rules say about when a fee is too much.

Jump to a section
By Michael Mangione, Legal Research Editor Last reviewed August 1, 2026 27 min read
Deductions
Three
The fee, the case costs, and the claims other parties have against your recovery. They are separate things.
The test
Reasonable
Conduct rules prohibit an unreasonable fee and an unreasonable amount for expenses, judged against listed factors.
Factors
Eight
The model rule lists eight considerations, and whether the fee is fixed or contingent is only the last of them.
Overhead
Not a cost
Ethics guidance addresses charging clients for general office overhead as though it were a case expense.

Key takeaways

  • The fee and the costs are different things. Confusing them is the single most common misunderstanding, and it is the one that produces the shock at the end.
  • A third deduction exists that nobody mentions. Health insurers, public programs and medical providers may all have claims against your recovery before you see any of it.
  • The percentage is negotiable in principle and bounded in fact. Conduct rules forbid an unreasonable fee, and the rules list the factors used to judge that.
  • You are entitled to an accounting. At the end of a contingent matter the rule requires a written statement showing what you receive and how it was worked out.
Editorial content, not legal advice

This guide is written and reviewed by our editorial team to be accurate and current. It is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The conduct rules quoted here are the American Bar Association's model rules, which bind nobody until a state adopts them, and states adopt them with variations. The worked example in section 03 uses round numbers to show arithmetic; it is not a claim about what any case is worth or costs. Check your own state's rule and talk to a licensed attorney about your own agreement.

01 What you actually pay, and when

Quick answer

You pay nothing up front and nothing by the hour. If people ask how much does a truck accident lawyer cost, the honest answer is that the cost is a share of what is recovered plus the money the firm spent running the case, and both come out at the end rather than as you go.

That arrangement is what a contingency fee is, and it exists because serious injury claims would otherwise be available only to people who could fund litigation for years. It is genuinely useful. It is also widely misunderstood, because the headline percentage is not what determines your outcome.

Nothing is billed as the case runs. No retainer, no hourly rate, no monthly invoice.

Everything is settled at the end, in one calculation. That calculation has more steps in it than most people expect, and section 03 walks through all of them.

The gist

Understanding the sequence before you sign is worth more than negotiating the percentage. We only match people with an attorney when the facts support it, and we say so plainly when they do not.

Bottom line: ask what reaches you, not what the percentage is. They are different questions with different answers.

02 The three numbers people confuse

Quick answer

Three separate things come out of a recovery and they are not the same: the lawyer's fee, the case costs the firm advanced, and the claims third parties have against the money. Each is calculated differently, each is owed to somebody different, and only the first is the fee you agreed a percentage on.

Almost every unpleasant surprise at the end of a case traces back to someone having assumed these were one number.

The three deductions from a recovery and how they differ
What it isWho it goes toHow it is worked out
The feeYour lawyerA percentage set in the agreement, which may differ for settlement, trial and appeal
Case costsReimbursed to the firmActual money spent running the case: experts, records, filing fees, depositions
Claims on the recoveryInsurers, providers, public programsRepayment of what others paid toward your treatment, governed by contract or statute

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

The third row is the one that catches people. If a health plan paid for your surgery, it may be entitled to be repaid out of your settlement. That has nothing to do with your lawyer's fee and it is not something a lawyer can waive, though a good one will negotiate it down.

The order of operations is set in your agreement

Whether case costs come out before or after the percentage is applied changes what you receive. That single choice is required to be stated in the agreement itself, and our guide to questions to put to a contingency agreement covers how to raise it. Section 03 below shows the two sequences side by side on the same numbers so you can see the size of the difference for yourself.

A woman sitting at a table with lots of papers
The paperwork
The sequence is written down.

03 The arithmetic, worked through

Quick answer

Take a recovery, subtract the fee, subtract the case costs, subtract the claims against it, and what remains is yours. Change only the order in which the first two happen and the final figure moves. Below is the same recovery calculated both ways, with round numbers chosen to make the arithmetic visible.

These figures are illustrative. One third was chosen because it divides cleanly and makes the arithmetic legible, not because it is the standard rate. They are not an estimate of what any case is worth, or of what any case costs to run. They exist to show you a sequence, so that when a firm walks you through your own numbers you already know the shape of it.

Illustrative arithmetic comparing costs deducted before and after the fee, using a 100,000 dollar recovery, a one third fee and 10,000 dollars of case costs
StepCosts deducted firstFee calculated first
Gross recovery$100,000$100,000
Case costs removed$10,000, leaving $90,000not yet
Fee at one third$30,000, on $90,000$33,333, on $100,000
Case costs removedalready deducted$10,000
Before third party claims$60,000$56,667

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

On these figures the two sequences differ by about three thousand three hundred dollars on a hundred thousand dollar recovery. Scale the recovery and the costs up and the gap scales with them. Neither approach is improper; what matters is that the agreement says which one applies and that you knew before you signed.

Then subtract the third deduction

Both columns above stop before the claims against your recovery. If a health plan, a public program or a hospital is owed repayment, that comes out of the remaining figure, not out of the lawyer's share. This is why a settlement that sounds substantial can produce a modest check, and why anyone quoting you a number without asking what has been paid toward your treatment is not giving you a real answer. If you want to model your own situation, our settlement calculator lets you put figures in, and the guide to what drives settlement amounts explains what moves the gross figure in the first place.

04 What makes a fee reasonable

Quick answer

Conduct rules do not set a maximum percentage. They impose a standard: the fee and the expenses must both be reasonable, judged against a list of factors that includes the difficulty of the work, the results obtained, the customary rate locally, and whether the lawyer was taking a risk on the outcome at all.

This matters because it tells you the percentage is not simply whatever the firm prints on the form. It has to be defensible.

The governing standard
Not an unreasonable fee, and not an unreasonable amount for expenses
American Bar Association, Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.5(a)

The rule opens: A lawyer shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an unreasonable fee or an unreasonable amount for expenses. Note that expenses are covered by the same sentence as the fee, which is easy to miss and directly relevant to section 05 below. The rule then lists the factors to be considered in determining the reasonableness of a fee. Those factors are not a formula and not all of them apply to every matter, but they are the vocabulary in which any challenge to a fee gets argued. Read Rule 1.5

Delaware's courts publish the same rule as adopted in that state, and it sets out all eight factors in full. They are worth reading once, because they are the questions a court would ask.

The eight reasonableness factors listed in Rule 1.5(a) as adopted in Delaware
FactorWhat it is really asking
Time and labor, novelty and difficulty, skill requiredWas this hard, and did it need this lawyer
Whether taking the case precluded other workWhat did the lawyer give up to take it
The fee customarily charged in the localityIs this in line with what others there charge
The amount involved and the results obtainedDid the outcome justify the share
Time limitations imposedWas the work compressed or urgent
Nature and length of the relationshipIs this a long standing client or a new one
Experience, reputation and abilityAre you paying for genuine standing
Whether the fee is fixed or contingentDid the lawyer carry real risk of being paid nothing

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

The last factor is the one that justifies contingency percentages being higher than an hourly equivalent would suggest. A lawyer who might recover nothing after years of work is entitled to be compensated for that risk. It follows that where the risk was slight, because liability was admitted early and the only question was quantum, the same percentage is harder to defend.

05 What can be charged as a case cost

Quick answer

Money actually spent on your case: expert reports, medical records, court filing fees, deposition transcripts, investigators, travel. The contested area is in-house charges, where a firm bills for its own photocopying, phone calls or staff time, and where the line between a genuine expense and general overhead gets blurred.

This is where reading the agreement carefully pays for itself. A contingency fee covers the lawyer's work; the cost list covers everything else, and it is usually where a firm's real economics show.

Ethics guidance on expenses
Overhead is not the same as a case expense
ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Formal Opinion 93-379

This opinion addresses how lawyers may properly bill for professional fees, disbursements and other expenses, and it is the reference point for the distinction between a genuine case expense and the ordinary cost of running a law office. The practical question to put to a firm is simple: for each item on your chargeable list, is this money you paid to somebody outside the firm, or is it a share of what it costs you to exist? Both may be chargeable depending on the agreement and the jurisdiction, but you are entitled to know which is which before you sign.

  • Ask for the actual list. Not a category heading. The agreement should enumerate what will be charged.
  • Ask about in-house rates. If copying is charged per page or staff time per hour, ask what the rate is and how it was arrived at.
  • Ask whether interest is charged. Some firms charge interest on money they advance. That is a term to know about, not to discover.
  • Ask what happens to costs if you lose. This is separate from the fee question and has to be answered separately.
  • Ask for itemized billing at the end. Not a single line reading case costs.
Man writing on paper
The numbers
Ask to see them worked through.

06 When the percentage moves

Quick answer

Many contingent fee agreements set more than one rate rather than a single percentage: a lower share if the case settles before suit is filed, a higher one if it goes to trial, and higher again on appeal. Some use a sliding scale that changes with the size of the recovery. The trigger points matter more than the numbers, because they decide which rate applies to you.

A rate that rises when a case is filed is not unfair. Filing means the work multiplies. But you should know the trigger before it happens rather than after.

  • What exactly triggers the increase? Filing suit, a trial date being set, the trial beginning, or something else. Ask for the precise event.
  • Does it apply to the whole recovery or only part? Some scales apply the higher rate to everything, some only to the amount above a threshold.
  • Who decides to file? If filing raises the rate, ask how that decision is made and whether you are consulted.
  • What happens on appeal? Including an appeal brought by the other side, which you did not choose.

07 What no fee unless we win does not mean

Quick answer

The slogan means exactly what it says about the fee and nothing at all about the costs. It does not automatically mean you owe nothing. Whether you owe the money the firm advanced if the case is lost depends entirely on your agreement, and firms differ. Some absorb costs on a loss, some do not, and the advertising slogan tells you nothing about which.

This is the single most important thing on this page to get in writing, because it is the scenario nobody plans for.

Ask the question in these exact words

"If we lose, what do I owe, and to whom?" Then ask them to show you where the agreement says it. There are three possible answers: nothing at all; the case costs but no fee; or the case costs plus any amounts the court orders you to pay the other side. Which one applies is a term of your contract and, in some places, a matter of state rule. It is not something to establish after a loss.

There is a related question worth asking at the same time. If the firm withdraws partway through, or you part ways, what happens to the costs already spent? Section 09 covers the fee side of that; the costs side is a separate term and is often in a different paragraph.

08 How to read the agreement

Quick answer

Work through it in a fixed order: find the percentage and its triggers, find the order of operations for costs, find the chargeable cost list, find the loss provision, find the withdrawal terms, and find the closing statement clause. Six things, and they are rarely in that order in the document.

Do this at home with the unsigned document rather than in the room. Nothing here requires legal training, and working through these six things will tell you more about how much does a truck accident lawyer cost in your own case than any published average could.

1

Find every percentage in the document

There may be more than one. Write down each rate and the exact event that triggers it. If a rate appears without a stated trigger, that is your first question.

2

Find the words before or after

Somewhere the agreement states whether case costs are deducted before or after the fee is calculated. Locate that sentence and read it twice. It is the sentence that moves your net the most.

3

Find the list of chargeable costs

Look specifically for in-house items: copying, postage, staff time, technology charges, interest on advanced funds. Note anything charged at a rate rather than at actual cost.

4

Find what happens if the case is lost

Search for the words unsuccessful, no recovery, or lose. Establish whether you owe the advanced costs, and whether you could owe anything to the opposing party.

5

Find the withdrawal and termination terms

What the firm may claim if it withdraws, and what it may claim if you leave. Both scenarios should be addressed and they are often addressed differently.

6

Find the closing statement clause

The model rule requires a written statement at the end showing the outcome, what you receive and how it was calculated. Check the agreement promises it, and keep the copy you are given.

Two men sitting at a table with papers and a pen
Changing firms
The first firm may still claim.

09 If you change lawyers

Quick answer

You can generally change lawyers, but the first firm does not simply disappear. It may claim payment for the work it did, and how that is calculated varies by state. In most places the claim is for the reasonable value of the work rather than the full contract percentage, and it is usually paid out of the eventual recovery rather than by you directly.

The practical effect is that changing firms rarely costs you twice, but it does need handling deliberately rather than by simply walking away.

  • The claim is usually for value, not for the contract share. Courts commonly assess what the work was reasonably worth, using factors close to those in section 04.
  • It usually comes out of the recovery, once. The incoming and outgoing firms typically divide a single fee rather than each taking a full share, but confirm that in writing.
  • Advanced costs are separate. The first firm will normally want reimbursing for money it actually spent, and that is a distinct question from its fee claim.
  • Raise the problem before you move. A second firm can tell you what changing would actually cost you before you do anything irreversible.

10 How state rules change this

Quick answer

Everything above comes from a model published by a professional association. It binds nobody until a state supreme court adopts it, and states adopt it with changes. Some add disclosure duties, some cap percentages in particular kinds of case, and some add protections the model text does not contain at all.

Two examples, both taken from the states' own published rules rather than from anybody's summary, show the range.

A state that adds a protection
You cannot be asked to sign away the right to challenge a fee
Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, Rule 1.5 as adopted in Maine

Maine's rule includes a provision that prohibits a lawyer from securing a client's advance waiver of the right to challenge the reasonableness of a fee, and notes that a client's written agreement to a fee is one factor in determining whether it was reasonable. The model text does not say that in those terms. If your state has an equivalent, a clause asking you to accept the fee as conclusively reasonable may not be enforceable; if it does not, the same clause may bind you. This is exactly the kind of difference that makes reading your own state's rule worth twenty minutes.

These two are illustrations of how adoption varies, not a survey. We have not attempted a fifty state table because the state-by-state material we could find was second hand, and being wrong about your state on this subject would be worse than saying nothing. Your state bar publishes its own rules of professional conduct, usually free and searchable. Look up Rule 1.5 for your jurisdiction and read paragraph (a) and paragraph (c).

Couple signing document at desk
Before you sign
Six things to find in the document.

11 Questions to ask about the money

Quick answer

Twelve questions, all answerable in a first meeting, all of which should produce a specific answer rather than a reassurance. If a firm cannot answer these clearly about its own standard agreement, that is information.

People often want to know how much does a truck accident lawyer cost before they call anyone. These are the questions that turn that into a real number rather than a percentage.

  1. What is the percentage, and is there more than one rate?
  2. What exact event triggers a higher rate?
  3. Are case costs deducted before or after the fee is calculated?
  4. Will you show me that arithmetic on a realistic figure?
  5. What is on your list of chargeable case costs?
  6. Do you charge for anything in-house, and at what rate?
  7. Do you charge interest on money you advance?
  8. If we lose, what do I owe, and to whom?
  9. Could I owe anything to the other side?
  10. What happens to the fee and the costs if either of us ends the relationship?
  11. Who is likely to have a claim against my recovery, and will you negotiate those down?
  12. Will I get an itemized closing statement showing every deduction?

The eleventh question is the one people forget and the one that most often explains a disappointing final figure.

12 Red flags

Quick answer

A refusal to explain the order of operations, a chargeable cost list that is vague or absent, no clear answer about a loss, a clause asking you to accept the fee as conclusively reasonable, and any pressure to sign before you have read it somewhere quiet.

None of these proves misconduct. Every one of them is a reason to take the document home and see somebody else.

Take it home if you hear any of this

Vagueness on before or after. This is required to be stated and it moves your money. No itemized cost list. You are entitled to know what you are being charged for. Deflection on losing. The one scenario where the answer matters most. A waiver of your right to challenge the fee. Some states prohibit exactly this. Sign today or the terms change. Legitimate retainer terms do not expire this afternoon. A promised final figure. Nobody can tell you your net before knowing who has a claim against the recovery.

One closing thought. Reading a fee agreement carefully is not a sign of distrust and no reputable firm treats it as one. You are agreeing to hand over a share of the only compensation you will ever receive for something that has changed your life. Twenty minutes with the document and a pen is proportionate.

How we vet every lawyer

We do not connect people with just anyone. Before we do, the attorney has to clear a checklist built for serious injury work. Every one of these has to be true.

  • Active, discipline-free license

    Verified good standing with the state bar, with no unresolved discipline on record.

  • Written terms, explained up front

    A fee agreement that states the rates, the order of operations and the position on a loss without being asked twice.

  • Itemized cost accounting

    A firm that will show you what it spent and why, rather than a single line at the end.

  • Capacity to fund a long case

    The resources to advance case costs over years without the case being driven by cash flow.

Tell us what happened and we will only match you when a case genuinely fits.

When you are ready

Two ways forward. The companion guides on the agreement itself and on what drives the gross figure are linked in sections 02 and 03 above.

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Help in all 50 states

MVA Lawyer Network is a nationwide guide. Wherever you are, we can connect you with an independent attorney licensed in that state.

Northeast Southeast Midwest Southwest West Coast Mountain West Gulf States Alaska and Hawaii

Rules of professional conduct are adopted state by state, so the reasonableness standard, any percentage caps, the treatment of expenses and whether you may be asked to waive a challenge to the fee all depend on where your lawyer is licensed. Your state bar publishes the governing version. The filing deadline for the claim itself, known as the statute of limitations, is a separate state question and it may already be running.

Sources and authorities

Rule text is quoted from published sources and linked. State examples come from the states' own publications, not from summaries.

The model rule

  • American Bar Association, Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.5: Fees. Source of the standard quoted in section 04 that a lawyer shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an unreasonable fee or an unreasonable amount for expenses, and of the requirement referred to in section 08 that a contingent matter ends with a written statement of the outcome. ABA.
  • ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Formal Opinion 93-379, on billing for professional fees, disbursements and other expenses. Referred to in section 05 for the distinction between a case expense and general overhead. We describe its subject rather than quoting it, because we have not read the full opinion text.

State adoptions, quoted from the states themselves

  • Delaware Courts, Rule 1.5 Fees as adopted in Delaware. Source of the eight reasonableness factors tabulated in section 04. Delaware Courts.
  • Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, Rule 1.5 as adopted in Maine. Source of the provision described in section 10 prohibiting an advance waiver of the right to challenge the reasonableness of a fee. Maine Board of Overseers.

On the worked example. The figures in section 03 are round numbers chosen to make arithmetic legible: a hundred thousand dollar recovery, a one third rate, ten thousand dollars of costs. They are not drawn from data and they are not a claim about what cases are worth or what they cost to run.

On the range you will see quoted. A contingent rate of roughly a third rising to about forty percent is quoted constantly across the personal injury industry, including in the fee answer on other pages of this site. We have not found a published source for that range that we would stand behind, and you should treat it as an industry convention rather than as a measured figure. It is a reasonable expectation to arrive with and a poor thing to assume. What governs your case is the number in your own agreement, and whether it can be defended against the reasonableness factors in section 04.

Model rules are models. The American Bar Association publishes the Model Rules as a template. They govern no lawyer anywhere until a state's highest court adopts them, and states adopt them with amendments, as the Delaware and Maine examples show. The version that governs your agreement is your own state's rule.

Why only two states are named. Delaware and Maine appear because we could read their rules on their own official sites. They are illustrations of variation, not a survey, and their rules do not tell you anything about your state unless you live in one of them.

Our editorial standards

How we keep this guide accurate and worth trusting.

01

Arithmetic, not estimates

Section 03 shows a sequence using round numbers, and says plainly that they are illustrative rather than typical.

02

States quoted from states

The two jurisdictions named here are sourced to their own courts and bar regulator, not to a summary.

03

Editorial, not legal advice

This is general information to help you make decisions, not advice about a specific agreement in a specific state.

04

Honest about how we operate

We are an independent referral service, not a law firm, and we may be paid a referral fee by the attorney if you hire through us.

Michael Mangione, Legal Research Editor
Michael Mangione Verified editor
Legal Research Editor · Founder, The Mangione Group, Inc.

MVA Lawyer Network is edited by Michael Mangione, who has spent more than twelve years working inside contingency-based law firms, building intake departments, designing qualification frameworks, and studying how claims are screened and pursued from the first call through resolution. That work is why this page exists: the gap between what people think they are agreeing to and what the document says is the thing he has watched most often. Michael is not a practicing attorney and does not give legal advice. Rule text here is quoted and linked so readers can check it.

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Common questions, answered

General information, not legal advice. Conduct rules are adopted state by state, so check your own state bar's version before relying on anything here.

How much does a truck accident lawyer cost?

Nothing up front and nothing hourly. You pay a share of what is recovered, plus reimbursement of the money the firm spent running the case, and both come out of the settlement at the end. The share is set in your written agreement and may differ depending on whether the case settles, is tried or is appealed. The costs are separate from the share, which is the distinction that catches most people out.

What is the difference between the fee and the case costs?

The fee is the lawyer's payment, expressed as a percentage. Case costs are money the firm actually spent on your matter: expert reports, medical records, filing fees, deposition transcripts, investigators. The firm advances those and is reimbursed from the recovery. They are two separate deductions, and a third exists on top of both where somebody else has a claim against your settlement.

What is a contingency fee, in plain terms?

An arrangement where the lawyer is paid a percentage of what is recovered and nothing if there is no recovery. It lets people who could not fund litigation bring serious claims. The trade is that the percentage compensates the firm for carrying the risk of being paid nothing, which is why the model conduct rule lists whether a fee is fixed or contingent as one of the factors in judging whether it is reasonable.

Is there a legal maximum percentage?

The model rule does not set one. It says instead that a lawyer shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an unreasonable fee, and lists eight factors for judging reasonableness. Some states do impose caps in particular categories of case, sometimes on a sliding scale. Whether one applies to you depends on your state and the type of claim, so check your own state's Rule 1.5.

Why does before or after matter?

Because deducting case costs before applying the percentage leaves you with more than applying the percentage to the gross and then deducting costs. Section 03 shows both on the same illustrative numbers. The larger the recovery and the larger the costs, the wider the gap. The agreement is required to state which applies; ask them to work it through on a realistic figure before you sign.

Can a firm charge me for photocopying and phone calls?

It depends on your agreement and your jurisdiction, and it is worth asking about specifically. There is a difference between money paid to somebody outside the firm and a share of the cost of running an office, and ABA Formal Opinion 93-379 addresses how lawyers may properly bill for fees, disbursements and other expenses. Ask for the list of chargeable items and the rate for anything charged in-house.

If we lose, do I owe anything?

You owe no fee. Whether you owe the case costs the firm advanced depends entirely on your agreement, and firms differ. Some absorb them, some do not. There is also a separate question about whether you could be ordered to pay anything to the other side. Ask both questions in plain words and ask to be shown where the agreement answers them.

Who else gets paid out of my settlement?

Potentially your health insurer, a public healthcare program, or medical providers who treated you on credit. Where somebody else paid toward your treatment, they may be entitled to repayment out of the recovery. This is the deduction people least expect. A capable firm will identify these early and negotiate them down where possible, and that negotiation can be worth more to you than a slightly lower percentage.

What are attorney fees judged against if I think mine are too high?

Against the reasonableness factors in Rule 1.5(a) as your state has adopted it: the difficulty and skill involved, what taking the case cost the lawyer in other work, the customary local rate, the result obtained, time pressures, the length of the relationship, the lawyer's standing, and whether the fee was fixed or contingent. Many state bars also run fee dispute resolution or arbitration programs, which are usually free or low cost.

Can I be asked to agree the fee is reasonable in advance?

You can be asked, but in some states such a clause is prohibited. Maine's adopted rule, for example, prohibits a lawyer from securing a client's advance waiver of the right to challenge the reasonableness of a fee. Whether your state has an equivalent provision is worth checking before signing anything that asks you to accept the fee as conclusively fair.

What happens to attorney fees if I switch firms mid-case?

The first firm may claim payment for work already done. In most places that claim is for the reasonable value of the work rather than the full contract percentage, and it is typically paid from the eventual recovery, with the two firms dividing a single fee rather than each taking a full share. Advanced costs are a separate claim. Get the position in writing before you move rather than after.

Am I entitled to a breakdown at the end?

Under the model rule, yes. On concluding a contingent matter the lawyer must provide a written statement of the outcome and, where there is a recovery, what is remitted to you and how it was determined. Ask for it itemized rather than as a single line for costs, and keep the copy. If the numbers do not match what you were told, that document is where the discrepancy will show.

Is what I tell you private?

Yes. What you share in a case review is kept private and is used only to match you with an attorney who fits your situation. One distinction is worth understanding: true legal confidentiality, called attorney-client privilege, only attaches once you actually have an attorney-client relationship with a lawyer. Submitting a form to a referral service is not the same thing. If that matters to you, raise it directly with the attorney.

What does it cost to use MVA Lawyer Network?

Nothing. We are a free, independent referral service, not a law firm, and we do not give legal advice. Requesting a case review costs you nothing and puts you under no obligation. When a situation fits, we connect you with an independent attorney who reviews it directly, and we may be paid a referral fee by that attorney. That fee does not add anything on top of their percentage. You can read more about how we operate.

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