If you’ve been injured in an accident and started looking into legal help, you may have come across some confusing information about legal fees. Maybe you’ve seen the term “contingency fee” or heard someone mention a “sliding scale” and wondered what either one actually means, and whether hiring a lawyer is something you can realistically afford.
The good news is that personal injury claims in Alberta are often billed very differently than other types of legal services. In many cases, your lawyer is only paid if or when your claim is successfully resolved. That said, not every fee structure works the same way. Understanding the difference can make it much easier to choose the right lawyer, ask the right questions, and get the support you need after an accident.
Key Takeaways
- A contingency fee means your lawyer only gets paid if money is recovered for you. This fee is a percentage of the settlement recovered for you, and you do not pay legal fees while your claim is ongoing.
- At Litco Law, injury claims are handled on a contingency fee basis, and this percentage is agreed upon at the beginning and never changes. However, some firms apply a sliding scale, where the percentage can increase depending on the complexity of the case or the amount of work involved.
- Disbursements costs are separate from contingency fees. These are case-related expenses for things like medical records, filing fees, and expert reports. At Litco Law, we cover these costs while your claim is ongoing.
- Many people assume they can’t afford a personal injury lawyer when they actually can. Free consultations and contingency fees are designed to make legal help more accessible after an accident.
- AI tools can be useful for generating general information, but when it comes to estimating the value of a claim, they are often misleading. The value of a claim depends on far more than the type of injury. It requires an experienced personal injury team to review medical evidence, recovery progress, future treatment needs, financial losses, and more.
What is a contingency fee?
A contingency fee is a fee arrangement where your lawyer’s fees are contingent on recovering money for you. Instead of charging hourly rates as the case progresses, the lawyer takes an agreed-upon percentage of the final settlement. That percentage is agreed upon in a written retainer agreement at the start of the claim.
If your personal injury lawyer works on contingency, you generally won’t have to worry about:
- paying a retainer upfront
- receiving monthly legal invoices
- being billed every time your lawyer sends an email, makes a phone call, or reviews a medical record
- finding thousands of dollars just to get your claim started
That’s a big reason contingency fees exist in personal injury law. After an accident, many people are already dealing with lost income, treatment costs, stress, and uncertainty. The last thing they need is a large legal bill landing on top of everything else.
What is a sliding scale fee?
A sliding scale fee is still often a percentage-based fee, but the percentage can change depending on the circumstances.
For example, a law firm might charge one percentage if a claim settles early, and a higher percentage if the matter proceeds further into litigation or toward trial. In other cases, the percentage may increase at different stages of the claim because more work, time, and risk are involved.
So while a contingency fee simply means the lawyer is paid out of the recovery, a sliding scale describes how that percentage may increase or change over time.
Here’s the easiest way to think about it:
- Contingency fee: a fee arrangement where your lawyer is only paid if and when money is recovered for you. The fee is often a fixed percentage of your settlement, agreed upon when you hire the lawyer.
- Sliding scale: some firms apply a sliding scale to their contingency fee, where the percentage may increase depending on factors such as the complexity of the case, the stage of the claim, or the amount of work involved.
A sliding scale can exist within a contingency fee model, but the terms are not interchangeable. That distinction matters because when people hear “contingency,” they sometimes assume every firm structures it the same way. They don’t.
Why This Matters
It’s easy to believe you can’t afford legal help when you actually can. We’ve seen people delay reaching out to a lawyer for months because they assume they’ll have to pay out of pocket. Others have been injured badly enough to need real support, but they talk themselves out of getting advice because they’re worried they’ll be stuck with a giant bill they can’t manage. That’s exactly the kind of confusion we want to eliminate.
How Contingency Fees Work at Litco Law
For personal injury claims, Litco Law works on a contingency fee basis.
That means:
- You never pay legal fees by the hour
- You do not pay anything upfront
- Our fee comes from the amount recovered at the end of your claim
- If we don’t recover compensation for you, you do not pay us anything
We also cover the cost of disbursements while your claim is ongoing.
Note: Not all injury lawyers cover the cost of disbursements during your claim, so it’s an important question to ask.
What Are Disbursements?
Disbursements are the out-of-pocket expenses that may be necessary to move your claim forward. Depending on the case, these can include costs for things like:
- medical records
- court filing fees
- expert reports
- police reports
- other case-related expenses
Those costs can add up, which is one more reason some people worry they can’t afford to bring a claim. At Litco Law, we cover those costs as the claim progresses, so you don’t have to worry about legal bills during your recovery.
Why Do Most Personal Injury Lawyers Not Bill Upfront?
If you’ve been injured in a car accident, pedestrian accident, slip and fall, or another incident caused by someone else’s negligence, you didn’t ask to be in this position and you probably didn’t budget for it. You may be off work, juggling medical appointments, paperwork, family responsibilities, and calls from the insurance company.
A contingency fee model gives injured people access to legal representation without having to come up with thousands of dollars first.
But doesn’t hiring a lawyer mean giving up part of my settlement?
If your claim is successful, your lawyer’s fee is paid from the amount recovered. That’s how contingency works, and how your lawyer gets paid for their time and expertise. It also means your lawyer or law firm takes on the financial risk of pursuing your claim. If no compensation is recovered, you don’t owe us anything for the time we spent working on your claim, and at Litco Law, we also write off the disbursements we paid on your behalf.
In many cases, having the right legal guidance can make a significant difference in how a claim is valued, documented, negotiated, and resolved.
A personal injury claim often involves:
- proving fault or responding to fault arguments
- collecting and organizing medical evidence
- understanding how Alberta law applies to your situation
- assessing pain and suffering, wage loss, future care, and housekeeping impairment
- communicating with insurers or the defense’s legal team
- helping to ensure you understand the full impact of your injuries before settlement
The goal is not simply to “take a percentage.” It is to help you pursue the compensation you are entitled to and protect you from feeling pressured into an outcome that doesn’t reflect what your accident has really cost you.
Have questions? Contact us today to speak with our legal team and get your questions answered, for free.
Good Questions to Ask Any Personal Injury Lawyer About Fees
If you’re meeting with a lawyer about a potential claim, don’t be shy about asking direct questions. You deserve to understand exactly how the fee structure works before you sign anything.
Here are a few smart questions to ask:
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Do you charge by contingency, and if so, what does that percentage apply to?
Ask whether the fee is based on the total recovery and whether there are any exceptions or additional charges you should know about.
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Is your contingency fee a flat percentage, or does it change over time?
This is where the sliding scale question matters. Ask whether the percentage increases if the claim goes to litigation, mediation, or trial.
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What happens with disbursements?
Will the firm cover these costs while your claim is ongoing? Are they deducted at the end of the claim? Are there circumstances where you would have to repay them?
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If my claim is unsuccessful, do I still owe anything?
You want a clear answer to this.
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Can you walk me through a sample fee calculation?
Sometimes the easiest way to understand a fee agreement is to have someone show you how it would work using a simple example.
A law firm should be comfortable answering these questions in plain language.
Many people assume they can’t afford a lawyer when the opposite is true
One of the hardest parts of personal injury law is that the people who most need help are often the ones most hesitant to ask for it. They worry it’s too expensive to hire a lawyer or think that their injury isn’t serious enough” But the reality is that many injury claims in Alberta are handled on a contingency fee basis, so cost does not have to be a barrier to getting legal support.
At Litco Law, consultations are free and we never bill by the hour. So if you’re not sure whether you have a claim, your injuries are serious enough, or hiring a lawyer makes sense, you can ask without any obligation to hire us.
A quick word about AI claim estimates
If you’ve typed your accident details into an AI tool and it confidently told you your claim is worth $100,000 or $250,000 or some other oddly specific number, please take that with a very large grain of salt. AI tools can be useful for generating general information, but when it comes to estimating the value of a personal injury claim, they can be misleading.
Why? Because a claim’s value depends on the actual evidence and facts of the case, including things like:
- the nature and severity of the injuries
- how long symptoms lasted
- whether recovery is complete or ongoing
- the medical records and treatment history
- wage loss evidence
- functional limitations
- liability issues
- pre-existing conditions
- credibility concerns
- the specific legal principles that apply in Alberta
- comparable case law, where relevant
An AI tool does not have enough reliable context to tell you what your claim is worth just because you typed in, “I was rear-ended and my neck still hurts.” It may give you a number anyway, but that does not mean the number is grounded in Alberta law, supported by evidence, or remotely accurate for your situation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Contingency Fees and Personal Injury Lawyers in Alberta
Do I have to pay a personal injury lawyer upfront in Alberta?
Often, no. Many personal injury lawyers in Alberta work on a contingency fee basis, which means you do not pay legal fees upfront, and you are not billed by the hour while your claim is ongoing.
At Litco Law, personal injury claims are handled on contingency. That means your legal fee is paid from the amount recovered at the end of the claim, not out of your pocket at the start.
What is the difference between a sliding scale fee and a contingency fee?
A contingency fee usually means your lawyer is only paid if compensation is recovered for you. At many firms, including Litco Law, that fee is a fixed percentage agreed upon at the beginning of your claim. However, some firms apply a sliding scale to their contingency fee, where the percentage may increase depending on factors such as how far the case progresses or how much work is involved. It’s an important question to ask before hiring a lawyer.
Are contingency fees common for personal injury claims in Alberta?
Yes. In Alberta, contingency fees are common in personal injury law because they allow injured people to pursue a claim without paying legal fees upfront or funding the case as it goes.
What happens if my personal injury claim is unsuccessful?
That depends on the law firm and the terms of your signed agreement, which is why it is important to ask upfront.
At Litco Law, if we do not recover compensation for you, you do not pay us anything. We are always happy to explain our fee structure clearly before you decide whether to move forward.
What are disbursements in a personal injury claim?
Disbursements are case-related expenses paid to help move your claim forward. They can include things like medical records, filing fees, expert reports, police reports, and other necessary out-of-pocket costs.
At Litco Law, we cover the cost of disbursements while your claim is ongoing so you do not have to fund those expenses yourself as the case progresses.
Does every law firm charge the same contingency fee percentage?
No. Fee structures can vary from one firm to another. Some firms use a flat contingency percentage, while others may use a sliding scale where the percentage changes depending on the stage of the claim.
That’s why it’s important to ask direct questions and make sure you understand exactly how fees, disbursements, and recovery are handled before signing an agreement.
Is it worth talking to a lawyer even if I’m not sure I can afford one?
Yes. If cost is the reason you haven’t reached out, it’s worth having a conversation. Many injury lawyers offer free consultations, and contingency fee arrangements are designed to make legal help more accessible after an accident.
Can AI tell me what my personal injury claim is worth?
Not reliably because AI won’t have all the necessary information. AI tools can provide general information, but they will not have access to the required evidence and specific information needed to estimate the value of a personal injury claim accurately. A claim’s value depends on the facts, medical evidence, liability issues, wage loss information, recovery timeline, and many other factors. If an AI tool has told you your claim is worth a specific amount, treat that estimate with caution.
Hurt in an accident and not sure if you can afford a lawyer?
If you’ve been injured in a car accident, pedestrian accident, slip and fall, or another incident in Alberta, our team can walk you through your options, explain how contingency fees work, and help you understand whether you may have a claim.
Your consultation is free. You won’t be billed by the hour. And if we’re not the right fit, we’ll still do our best to point you in the right direction.
Contact us today to speak with a member of our legal team.
