Wantage Township, NJ Personal Injury Law Firms & Lawyers

First, you have to file a lawsuit within 1 year of the time you learned of the malpractice. It sounds like the date starts running when your doctor told you what happened. But you are better off to file within 1 year of the original surgery. If you are close to the 1 year, a required letter that must be sent before filing a lawsuit will extend the deadline for 90 days. I strongly suggest you get to an attorney ASAP and not worry about fees. However, to answer your fee question, a lawyer will take your case on contingency which means he or she does not get paid until you settle or collect on a judgment. Medical malpractices cases are very difficult for a plaintiff?s lawyer because the cap on what you can win is $250,000 plus your out of pocket losses (for medical care and loss of earnings) and future medical expenses. Medical malpractice is the only area of law that has a statute stating what the attorney's fees can be. It?s a sliding scale fee schedule: (1) 40% of the First Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) recovered; (2) 33 1/3% of the Next Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) recovered; (3) 25% of the Next Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($500,000.00) recovered; and, (4) 15% of any amount which exceeds Six Hundred Thousand Dollars ($600,000.00) It's also the one area of law where costs come off the top first before the above schedule applies. So let's say you incur $50,000 in filing fees, expert fees, jury fees, deposition costs, etc. and you win $300,000 at trial. A portion of the costs incurred are recoverable, but usually not all of them. Let's say the court says $30,000 are recoverable. In that event, it gets added to the $300,000 judgment. Usually it works in the way that you get a check for $330,000 from the doctor/insurance company. From that, the lawyer subtracts $50,000 for costs, which puts you at $280,000 for the fee schedule to apply. The attorney gets $20,000 (40%) of the first $50,000, $16,666 of the next $50,000, and then 25% of the next $180,000 which is $45,000. Thus, the attorney gets ($20,000 + $16,666 + $45,000=) $81,666. You would get ($330,000 ? $81,666=) $248,334.

Based on the information given the injured worker is likely entitled to significant compensation under Idaho Workers Compensation law. However, the amount of compensation will depend on how well in the injured worker heals. Certainly, if the injured worker will not walk again then the compensation will be greater. The injured worker should consult with a lawyer.