Who Will Pay The Case Expenses?

If your legal malpractice case arising out of mishandling a personal injury or wrongful death case, then in most cases your malpractice attorney will advance all the expenses or "costs" of the case, and then be reimbursed for these costs out of the recovery. Because of the complexities and proof requirements in malpractice cases, these out-of-pocket costs spent by the attorney on things like records, court reporters, expert witnesses, travel, and trial exhibits, can easily be in the tens of thousands of dollars. In the more complicated cases, these "costs" might exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00).   This reimbursement for expenses is usually at the end of the case and is in addition to the attorney's fee percentage, which pays the attorney for the time and effort he spends on your case. In some regions of the country if there is no recovery the client must ultimately reimburse the lawyer for the expenses, even though no attorney's fee is owed and the client recovers nothing in the case. In other places, if the case is lost the client owes nothing for the expenses and the lawyer simply absorbs the loss.  In legal malpractice cases arising out of tax or business matters, the clients might be expected to advance some or all of the expenses to prove the case, however this is often negotiable.  Make sure you understand the arrangement on the front end of your case.

The Florida Rules of Professional Conduct will permit a lawyer to be responsible for the costs and expenses of the case and not charge his client for those expenses at the end of the case if there is no recovery. Many experienced legal malpractice attorneys will handle it this way, however, it is a matter of what is in your contract and there are some attorneys in Florida who require their clients to advance costs up front, or as the case proceeds, or at the end of the case, even if they lose the case. This is more common for legal malpractice cases arising out of complicated business transactions.  

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