Attorneys don't come in free of cost. Employment Law Attorneys use different methods of charging for their services in connection with wrongful termination claims. Wrongful termination lawyers charge for their services in one of three different ways:
Contingency fees
Under this arrangement, the attorney receives a percentage of settlement or award. If you don't get any compensation, neither does your lawyer. Three-quarters of our readers with attorneys paid them a contingency fee, and most of those readers (56%) paid between 30% and 35%. The overall average was just under 30%.
Hourly fees
Employment lawyers may charge by the hour, at rates that vary widely depending on the attorney's experience and location. This arrangement is much less common since most fired employees can't afford it. Only 10% of our readers with lawyers paid on an hourly basis. Over a third (35%) of them paid between $100 and $200 per hour, while nearly a third (30%) paid over $300 an hour.
Combination fees
Your lawyer might ask you to pay a modest retainer fee at the start, with an agreement that you'll also pay a percentage of any settlement or award. About 15% of our readers with lawyers paid through this arrangement.
Average Contingency Fee
Based on the average compensation received by readers who had attorneys, as well as the average contingency fee they paid (29%), their lawyers typically received about $14,200. But even when you subtract that fee from the settlement or award, those readers still ended up with nearly $15,500 more, on average, than those who didn't have attorneys.
At the Marcarian Law Firm, P.C., our Los Angeles Wrongful Termination Attorney has extensive experience handling employee rights claims.