What Percentage Does an Accident Lawyer Take in Denver? The Math Behind Your Check

This page provides general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always consult a licensed attorney for advice specific to your situation.

Is There a Set Percentage for Accident Lawyers in Colorado?

No. Colorado’s fee rule doesn’t name a percentage for injury cases. It says a lawyer “shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an unreasonable fee or an unreasonable amount for expenses” (Colo. RPC 1.5(a)).

What the rule does require is paperwork. A contingent fee agreement has to be signed by the client and the lawyer (Colo. RPC 1.5(c)), and it has to state the percentage or amounts the lawyer receives.

So when you hear a figure like 33%, treat it as a starting question for the lawyer you’re talking to. The answer that counts is the one written in your agreement.

What the Percentage Is Taken From

A contingency percentage is applied to the amount recovered, and your agreement decides exactly which amount that is. Colorado requires the agreement to say whether the fee is figured “before or after the deduction of” costs and expenses and other amounts you owe that are paid from the recovery (Colo. RPC 1.5(c)).

That gives you two questions to ask before you sign:

• Is the percentage applied to the full settlement, or to what’s left after case expenses?
• Is it applied before or after amounts you owe from the settlement, such as a repayment claim from a health plan?

The rule requires the answer in writing. It doesn’t require one answer over the other, which is why two agreements with the same percentage can produce different checks.

Before or After Expenses: Two Checks From One Settlement

At the same percentage, figuring the fee after expenses leaves more for you. Here’s a hypothetical $60,000 settlement with $3,000 in case expenses and a 33% fee, before anything else is paid.

Step	Fee figured before expenses	Fee figured after expenses
Settlement	$60,000	$60,000
The amount the 33% applies to	$60,000	$57,000
Attorney’s fee	$19,800	$18,810
Case expenses repaid	$3,000	$3,000
Left before other payments	$37,200	$38,190

In this example, the same 33% leaves $990 more in the second column. These numbers are for illustration only, and your expenses, fee, and settlement will differ.

Why the Percentage Can Rise if the Case Goes to Court

Colorado requires the agreement to state “the percentage or amounts that will accrue to the lawyer in the event of settlement, trial or appeal, or other final disposition” (Colo. RPC 1.5(c)). In practice, that means one agreement can list more than one percentage.

Here’s the same $60,000 settlement if the agreement set a higher hypothetical figure of 40% once a lawsuit is filed, with the fee figured before expenses:

• Attorney’s fee: $24,000
• Case expenses repaid: $3,000
• Left before other payments: $33,000

Ask which stage triggers each percentage. “Filing a lawsuit,” “starting trial,” and “an appeal” are different points, and the agreement should tell you which one moves the number.

What Else Can Come Out Before You’re Paid

The fee and the expenses aren’t always the only deductions. Colorado requires a fee agreement to tell you that “other persons or entities may have a right to be paid from amounts recovered” on your behalf, for example, when an insurer or a government agency paid for your care (Colo. RPC 1.5(c)).

Colorado law sets rules for several of those claims:

• Health insurance and benefit plans. A plan covered by Colorado’s statute can be repaid only if you’ve first been fully compensated, and its repayment is reduced by its share of your attorney fees and expenses (C.R.S. 10-1-135).
• Medicaid. If Colorado Medicaid paid for your care and has a lien, no settlement is satisfied until that lien is paid (C.R.S. 25.5-4-301).
• Hospitals. Before a hospital can have a lien, it has to submit its charges to the property and casualty insurer, such as an auto insurer, and to the primary health coverage identified by you or on your behalf (C.R.S. 38-27-101).

Each of these depends on your coverage and the facts of your case. We walk through how they hit a real number in How Much of a $50,000 Settlement Would I Get?, and the $25,000 version is in our $25,000 settlement breakdown.

How Fault Changes the Amount the Percentage Applies To

 

Your share of fault can reduce the settlement before any percentage is taken. Under Colorado law, damages are “diminished in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to” the injured person (C.R.S. 13-21-111).

If your share of fault is equal to or greater than the other driver’s, the court enters judgment for the defendant under the same statute. The facts of the crash can change your take-home amount.

What Happens if There’s No Recovery?

Under a fully contingent fee, the lawyer’s fee depends on the case succeeding, so no recovery means no attorney’s fee (Colo. RPC 1.5(c)). Expenses are a separate question. Colorado requires the agreement to state “the client’s obligation, if any, to pay expenses if there is no recovery” (Colo. RPC 1.5(c)). Read that line before you sign.

Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Fee Agreement

These five questions cover the parts that move your check:

1. What percentage applies at settlement, and what percentage applies if a lawsuit is filed or the case goes to trial?
2. Is the fee figured before or after case expenses?
3. What expenses do you expect, and who pays them if there’s no recovery?
4. Who else may have a right to be paid from the settlement?
5. Will I get a written breakdown at the end?

The last answer should be yes in every case. Colorado requires the lawyer to give you “a written disbursement statement” showing the amounts received, the costs and expenses, sums paid to third parties, and the computation of the fee (Colo. RPC 1.5(c)). For a truck case, see what it costs to hire a Denver truck accident lawyer.

Talk to a Denver Accident Lawyer About the Numbers

If you’ve been hurt and want to know what a fee agreement would mean for your case, our Denver car accident lawyers can go through it with you line by line. The consultation is free, and there’s no fee unless we win. That phrase covers the attorney’s fee, and case expenses are handled under the terms of your written agreement.

Call (303) 209-9395 or send your details through our contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Written by CGH Injury Lawyers.

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