How Contingency Fees Work in Texas, and How to Know Your Lawyer Isn’t Taking More Than the Deal

How contingency fees work in Texas is simpler than the fear around it. When we resolve your case, every dollar fits on one settlement statement: what the case brought in, what we are paid, what the case cost to build, what your doctors are owed, and what is left for you. We hand you that page and read every line with you.

At J. Alexander Law you pay $0, and once we win we agree on a fair percentage

A contingency fee ties our pay to your result. We advance the cost of building your case and take an agreed percentage of what we recover, but only if we recover. If your case brings in nothing, you owe us no fee, and because we work on a true no fee unless we win basis, you are never billed for the case costs we advanced either. One detail we make sure you have straight up front: the percentage is figured on the gross recovery, the full amount before deductions, not on the smaller net you take home.

The cases we take on a contingency basis

Almost any injury case with a money claim behind it can be taken on a contingency basis: car and truck accidents, motorcycle wrecks, slip and fall injuries, defective products, medical malpractice, and wrongful death. The fee works because it is drawn from the recovery itself, so a client who could never pay an hourly rate can still put a lawyer against an insurance company. Cases with no money recovery to draw from, such as criminal defense, most family law, and immigration matters, are the ones that cannot be taken on a contingency fee.

Common questions

We put your settlement on one page you can read, the way we did for LaToya

The most anxious moment of a claim is usually the end of it, the day it settles and you finally learn what you keep. LaToya’s version of that moment is on camera below. Her case was a car accident, and the video is her case manager walking her disbursement statement from the top down: the amount her case settled for, then the attorney’s fees and case expenses, then the full amount her providers billed and the lower figure we negotiated them down to, and last, under a sticky note, the number that was hers to take home. Her hands were shaking. It was, in her words, way more than she expected.

That single sheet is your written settlement statement, sometimes called a disbursement statement. The only surprise it should ever hold is the kind LaToya had, never a charge no one mentioned, because we put the fee in writing and told you about the liens along the way.

LaToya shares her individual experience in her own words. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

What the same math does to a $20,000 check

On a $20,000 settlement resolved before suit, you would keep close to $9,000. The one third attorney contingency fee takes about $6,600, roughly $1,000 repays case costs, and medical bills negotiated down to about $3,400 come out last, which is what leaves near $9,000 in your pocket. On $50,000 the order is identical, but filing suit moves the fee from about $16,500 at one third to $20,000 at 40 percent, so see the full $50,000 settlement take-home breakdown for the liens, tax, and comparative fault detail.

These are round numbers for illustration; your statement shows your actual figures.

Once you sign the settlement release, the money does not come straight to you, and knowing the path keeps the wait from feeling like a red flag. The insurer sends the funds to our trust account, usually within a couple of weeks. From there we pay the case costs, finish clearing your medical liens, and cut your check for the net, so the whole thing often runs about two to six weeks from signing. Liens are the usual holdup, especially Medicare or Medicaid, which is why we start negotiating them early to get your money to you sooner.

We educate you on where every dollar goes

Three deductions come off the gross recovery in a fixed order before you reach your net, and you are entitled to see each one: the fee first, then the case costs, then the liens.

• The attorney fee. The agreed percentage of your recovery, and nothing more than your signed agreement with us states.
• Case costs. What we advanced to build your case: medical records, expert reports, filing fees, and deposition costs. These come back out of the recovery, and we itemize every one so nothing is a guess.
• Liens and unpaid bills. Money your providers are owed. A hospital can place a medical lien on your recovery for emergency care under Texas Property Code Chapter 55, and a health insurer, Medicare, or Medicaid can seek repayment through subrogation, which simply means their right to be paid back out of your settlement for bills they already covered. Part of our job is negotiating these down before you ever see your net.

In LaToya’s case, that reduction did not go to us, it went straight into what she kept.

Common questions

How we at J. Alexander Law honor you

You should never need a law degree to check your own lawyer. Here is what we do for you without being asked, and what any firm truly on your side should.

• We put the fee, the case costs, and the plan for your liens in writing before you sign.
• We tell you when a demand goes out and what it asks for, so you are never guessing about your own case.
• We return your call the same day or the next business day, from someone who already knows your file.
• We send an itemized settlement statement at the end and read you through every line.
• We negotiate your medical liens down instead of passing them straight through to you.
• We turn down a low first offer when your file supports more, rather than closing fast.
• We remember whose case it is: saying yes or no to any settlement offer is your decision, never ours.

Common questions

Tell your own lawyer everything, including facts you think hurt your case, and say as little as possible to everyone else; for the specific things never to say to an adjuster or post on social media while your claim is open, see our guide to dealing with insurance companies in Texas.

Signs that the other firm isn’t doing a great job

We want you to spot the opposite pattern just as fast. Any one of these is a reason to ask hard questions or get a second opinion.

Common questions

Understanding the math behind your fees in Texas matters, and we aim to help

We give you two free ways to put the numbers back in your own hands.

Then verify any lawyer, including us. Under the State Bar of Texas rules a contingency fee must be reasonable and put in writing, and every fee agreement is held to that standard. You can confirm an active license, read any public grievance history, and file a grievance yourself through the State Bar of Texas. For the full checklist on vetting a firm before you hire, read our guide to how to choose a Texas personal injury lawyer.

The 80/20 rule has nothing to do with your fee

The 80/20 rule for lawyers is a business observation, not a fee. It describes the idea that about 80 percent of a firm’s results come from about 20 percent of its cases, and it never sets what a client pays. Your percentage is the contingent fee written into your signed agreement, most often one third before suit and 40 percent once a lawsuit is filed.

Common questions

At J. Alexander Law, we put our name behind every dollar

Josh Alexander

Founder · J. Alexander Law

Marine Corps veteran · From the attorney’s desk

I am Josh Alexander. I opened J. Alexander Law Firm in 2017 (Texas Bar No. 24086984) after serving as a Marine in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and I built it around a rule I do not bend: no client should ever have to take a number on faith. A settlement is your money, so you see every figure that touches it, the fee, the costs, the medical bills we negotiated down, before a single dollar moves. Matthew Graham, our Managing Litigation Attorney, runs every file to it.

Let’s break down the math, where you stand now and what your fee should look like

A free case review is a conversation with us about your situation and your money: what happened, what you are owed, and what a fair fee would look like on one page. No fee unless we win.