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Sean, thanks for A2A. I’ve tried over 130 civil jury trials so I’ve seen a lot of very good lawyers. The short answer is that a “jaw dropping” lawyer’s chief skill is that you never see it coming. It’s very subtle. I’ve seen some of the top civil lawyers in the country and still will go over just to watch a heavy hitter and see if I can learn anything. Often, I’ll watch their opening statement and think, “this is the guy I heard so much about, that opening wasn’t so great.” In other words, they seem very normal and approachable. A jury is not put off by performance or personality issues. There are no gimmicks. It seems like just another member of their community laying out the issues and story. It’s incredibly ordinary. Their questioning is very straightforward and often lacks any theatrical flourishes. They do not make the case about them or their skill. It’s always about their client and the case. They are generally technically competent, but they will misspeak, flub questions, and lose objections. They get flustered. In most respects, they are generally respectful and deferential to the judge.With most good lawyers, you really notice the quality when they give their closing statement. They’ve proven their case, and everything they said in that ordinary opening was credibly proven. They did not under deliver on a single point. You watch the jurors subtly nod; and maybe, you’ll see some emotion in the closing on behalf of their client. Again, it’s generally not particularly dramatic.The jaw dropping thing happens when you hear the verdict. While their performance is not jaw dropping, the outcome is absolutely a stunner; and these heavy hitters get jaw dropping verdicts consistently.I can’t say specifically why these elite few are so special. But they have something intangible. Why is Meryl Streep a great movie star? She’s not the prettiest or most dynamic. But she completely disappears into her performance and there is no distraction. The great lawyers are not always “lawyers’ lawyers.” I love to watch a great craftsman that dismantles a witness or makes a great argument. But it’s obvious to me, and obvious to the jury. The jurors are more skeptical of the theatrical or skillful lawyer.There are two final points. First, in Philadelphia, there was a legendary lawyer named Nate Richter who begat, directly or closely, most of the top lawyers in town. In the 1950s, Nate invented catastrophic personal injury litigation, including the experts and techniques to get massive verdicts. Nate’s protege, Jim Beasley, has his name on Philadelphia’s largest law school (Temple University) and Beasley’s protege, Tom Kline, just put his name on Drexel’s law school, both due to nine figure donations. Most of the top lawyers in town go back one or two spaces to Nate. When Nate was asked, “why do you get such massive verdicts?” He answered, “I ride fast horses.” In other words, he got the best cases in town, and they were fundamentally strong cases. Suffice it to say, it’s very hard to look good if you have a crappy case. Good lawyers look good, in no small part, because they start off with a very strong case.Second, you can be really good, jaw droppingly good, and it may not help your client. As part of some national work I was doing, we did focus groups via video conferencing to mock juries all over the country. I had the weak side during the presentation, which was representing the corporation in a death case. As part of the exercise, after getting their verdicts and answers to a questionnaire, the moderators asked a general question of the jurors, “what did you think about the lawyer representing the company.” In juries all over the country, except for one place, I got high marks. They were very complimentary of my skill and presentation. They said my presentation was persuasive and easy to follow. Many of them found for the company on terrible facts. The one exception was West Virginia, the jurors said, “that’s the lawyer you want to hire if you’ve done something really bad and are trying to get away with it.” In that jurisdiction, they viewed my skill level as being indicative of the company’s culpability. In their view, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t need a special lawyer.

If you or a loved one have suffered an Injury you may be entitled to monetary compensation from the person or company whose negligent conduct caused the injury. Document everything including any medical visits, time missed from work, and insurance company conversations. Where possible, get all communications in writing.Attorneys sometimes represent clients on a “contigency basis,” in which the attorney does not charge for services until the case is resolved. Attorneys in our network provide a Free Initial Claim Evaluation. Among your many questions you should ask, inquire how their fee structure works.Imagine calling law firms, only to find out they cannot service your claim! Our advertising attorneys specify, in advance, which claims they can service. For example, one law firm may only be able to service a local geography. Another firm may service only motorcycle injury claims.Let technology help – our advanced database system uses criteria from your claim description to find a qualified attorney in our vast network, saving you the time and stress of seeking legal assistance yourself. Our attorneys are actively looking for claims like yours, we want to help you recoup the damages from your injury. Complete the inquiry questionnaire and Get Legal Help, starting with a free and confidential consultation.

Yes. This is how many lawyers and law firms operate. It is completely legal for you to sign a contract with a client that you get a percentage of a settlement or any court awarded damages. The model rule which is likely followed by most state bars is that a fee has to be “reasonable.”What is reasonable depends on the specific facts of the case of course. If it only takes you 10 minutes to reach a settlement, then getting 30% of $10 million is perhaps not reasonable. That is an extremely high hourly rate. But I don’t know how strongly the state bars enforce this rule, so it may only become an issue if the client then submits a complaint to the bar association because they don’t want to pay. The bar association may then approve the fee or ask the lawyer to accept a smaller amount.You could also lose the case, or end up working on a case for many hours and then get a very tiny settlement, which results in you working for less than minimum wage when you divide up your cut by the number of hours you worked. Unfortunately, there is no rule against that. A bar association cannot order a higher fee.There are several practical ways to avoid this:Lawyers who work on contingency fees have a detailed screening system. They or likely their support staff will do an initial screening, such as going through a basic questionnaire with a potential client over the phone. The ones that get through the first stage, are worth the attorney’s time and go in for a consultation with the actual lawyer. The lawyer will ask questions about the case and try to determine based on their expertise what the chances are of winning and what the payout might be. The lawyer will only take on a case and accept the person as a client if they think it’s worth it.Another possibility is to have a contract that doesn’t just state “lawyer gets 30% of any settlement or court awarded damages” but to have a sort of hybrid “either contingency or X fee.” The X could be the hourly rate or a fixed fee. For example, a lawyer might agree to take a case in exchange for “30% of any settlement or $35,000, whichever is more.” Or “30% of any settlement or $300/h for any work done whichever is more.”There are many ways a lawyer or law firm can structure its billing. The standard way to bill by the hour is very common, especially in big corporate firms. And the firm then just wants to have every lawyer to bill as many hours per year as possible and they usually set some sort of target or required minimum hours billed. However, this is by no means the only way to do it. It really depends on the creativity or flexibility of the lawyer and also the area of law that you practice. For example, personal injury lawyers are mostly all working on contingency fees as described above. That is because most regular people don’t have thousands to pay a lawyer, but that’s a large part of the population who have accidents or get injured. So the only way the lawyers can make money is if they develop a billing structure that works for that type of client.Hope this helps!