Two contingency agreements can quote the same percentage and pay out thousands apart, depending on costs, tiers, lien work, and exit terms.
Two contingency agreements sitting side by side on a kitchen table will usually quote a similar headline percentage, and that similarity is the least informative thing about them. What separates a settlement that nets you sixty-two cents on the dollar from one that nets forty-nine is buried in four or five clauses that never mention the fee rate at all: how costs are treated, when the percentage moves, who negotiates the medical liens, and what happens if the relationship ends early. A careful reader asks about those clauses out loud, before signing, and listens for whether the answer contains numbers.
Start with the percentage, then keep going
Ask what the fee is, and then ask the second question immediately: does it change, and on what event. Many agreements step from roughly a third to forty percent when suit is filed, and some step again at a trial date or an appeal. A solid answer names the trigger precisely, the filing of a complaint rather than the vague notion of litigation, and says who decides to pull that trigger. The third question is whether the fee is calculated on the gross recovery or on the recovery after case costs come out. That single choice moves real money, and a firm that has answered it before will tell you which one applies without hedging.
Costs are where identical percentages come apart
Ask who advances case expenses and whether you owe them back if the case loses. Some agreements waive repayment on a loss, some do not, and the difference only matters on the day it matters. Then ask what is actually billed as a cost: filing fees and deposition transcripts are uncontroversial, but postage, in-house copying at a per-page rate, mileage, and staff overtime are the line items that quietly accumulate over eleven months. Ask whether advanced costs carry interest. Ask for an itemized cost ledger on request rather than only at the end. A firm with clean cost practices will offer the ledger before you finish the sentence.
Who works the file, and who has authority
Ask which attorney will handle your case day to day, and whether the person across the table will be that attorney or a screener who hands the file to someone else on Monday. Ask whether the firm intends to refer the case out or bring in co-counsel, and if so, how the fee splits and whether the split increases your total cost (in most states it cannot, but you should hear that said). Ask how settlement offers are communicated: a good answer is that every offer comes to you in writing, that nothing is accepted or rejected without your instruction, and that the file contains your written approval.
Lien work, exit terms, and the closing statement
Ask who negotiates the health insurer, hospital, and Medicare liens, and whether that work is included in the contingency fee or billed as an extra percentage. Lien reduction is often worth more to your net than an extra few thousand on the gross, so it deserves a direct answer. Ask what happens if you discharge the firm, or the firm withdraws: most agreements convert to a claim for the reasonable value of work performed, secured by an attorney's lien on the recovery, and you want to know how those hours would be counted. Finally, ask to see a sample closing statement and how quickly funds disburse after the check clears the trust account. The Internal Revenue Service is responsible for how settlement proceeds are characterized for tax purposes, and a firm that raises that distinction unprompted, separating physical injury damages from interest and other categories, is showing you the same diligence it will apply to your file.
What a solid answer sounds like
Specificity, mostly. A strong answer contains a number, a document, or a named event: forty percent upon the filing of a complaint, costs deducted before the fee is computed, the itemized ledger available quarterly, the closing statement signed by you before disbursement. A weaker answer contains reassurance instead, phrased as what usually happens or what the firm always tries to do. Neither answer requires the attorney to be adversarial, and most will welcome the questions, because a client who reads the agreement carefully at the start is a client who understands the closing statement at the end.
Ask for the retainer by email, read it away from the office, and mark every clause that describes money leaving the recovery. Then bring the marked copy back and go through it line by line. The firm that walks you through all nine answers patiently has told you something about how it will handle the next eleven months.