A careful reader checks caseload, who actually touches the file, trial history versus settlement volume, and which retainer clauses a firm will change on request.
A contingency agreement is usually two to five pages, and most of it is boilerplate. The parts that decide what you keep are short, and the parts that decide how your claim is handled are not in the document at all. They come out of the conversation before you sign. Below are questions that produce numbers rather than reassurance, plus the clauses that firms will often change if asked.
Questions about who does the work
1. How many open files does the attorney signing this agreement have right now?
Ask for a count, not a range. An attorney with 60 to 90 active soft-tissue claims is running a volume practice, which is not automatically bad; those firms are efficient at claims that settle for $8,000 to $40,000. An attorney with 15 files is doing something different. What matters is the match between the number and your claim. If your medical bills are already past $60,000 and you have a treating orthopedist recommending surgery, a 90-file caseload is a mismatch.
2. Who will call the adjuster, and who will call me?
In most firms the answer is a case manager or paralegal, and that is normal. What you want to know is the escalation point. Ask: if I disagree with a settlement recommendation, who do I talk to, and how fast? A specific answer sounds like "my paralegal handles records and returns calls same day, I review the file at the demand stage and before any offer is accepted."
3. Does this firm refer cases out?
Some firms advertise broadly and then refer files to other lawyers, splitting the fee. That is legal in most states with written client consent, and the split does not increase your fee. But it changes who is doing the work. Ask directly whether your file is likely to be referred, and to whom.
Questions about outcomes
4. How many cases did the firm file in court last year, and how many went to verdict?
Filing suit and trying a case are different events. A firm can file 200 complaints a year and try none. Verdicts are public record, so the number is checkable. Two or three tried cases a year is a working trial practice. Zero over five years is a settlement practice, and the adjusters on the other side know it.
5. What does the fee do if the case is filed?
Tiered fees are common: 33.3 percent pre-suit, rising to 40 percent after a complaint is filed, sometimes 45 percent after an appeal. On a $150,000 recovery, that step from 33.3 to 40 percent is about $10,000. Ask what triggers the step. "Filing" and "the case does not settle within 90 days" are very different triggers.
6. Who advances costs, and what happens to them if the case loses?
Filing fees, records, an expert report at $3,500, a deposition transcript at $700. In a case that settles for $25,000 with $4,000 in costs and a one-third fee, the client nets roughly $12,700 before medical liens. Ask whether costs are deducted before or after the fee is calculated; that ordering can be worth several hundred dollars. Ask, in writing, whether you owe costs if there is no recovery.
Clauses that are often negotiable
7. Settlement authority
Some agreements grant the attorney authority to accept offers within a range. Strike it. Ask for a clause requiring your written approval of any settlement, at any amount.
8. The withdrawal and discharge terms
Read what happens if you fire the firm. A quantum meruit lien on hourly value is standard. A clause converting to a flat percentage of the last offer, or claiming the full contingency fee, is worth pushing back on. Ask for a cap tied to hours actually worked.
9. Fee on the medical payments and PIP portions
If your own policy pays $10,000 in medical benefits with no dispute, ask whether the firm charges a fee on that money. Many will waive it when the benefit is paid without a fight.
What to do with the answers
Take the agreement home. Any firm that will not let you read it overnight has told you something. Write your questions in the margin, send them by email, and keep the reply. A firm that answers in writing before you sign is likely to answer in writing afterward.