No Insurance? Learn How You Can Still Afford a Personal Injury Lawyer

It is the ultimate Catch-22. 

You suffered injuries that resulted from the negligence of another party. Because you do not have any insurance, how do you pay for the rapidly rising costs of healthcare, as well as pay for property damage and make up for lost wages?

The answer is hiring a personal injury attorney to file a civil lawsuit against the negligent party.

However, here is where the Catch-22 conundrum comes into play. How can you afford a personal injury if you do not have insurance coverage to receive compensation for your medical bills? You simply have to learn how to afford a lawyer without any insurance.

Although it is true litigation can be a costly process both in time and money, you can afford a personal injury attorney without insurance if you know what to look for in legal counsel. You want to work with a personal lawyer who charges legal fees on a contingency fee basis. As we will see later in this article, paying a personal injury attorney on a contingency fee basis is preferable to paying a personal injury lawyer by the hour.

The best part is you do not need any insurance money to compensate the team of personal injury lawyers at Morgan & Morgan. Not only do we charge on a contingency fee basis, but we also charge one of the lowest rates for legal representation in your area. To learn more about the legal services we provide, schedule a free case evaluation with one of our highly-rated personal injury attorneys.

Why Should I Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?

A personal injury incident caused by the negligence of another party can have life-altering consequences. You might suffer serious injuries that prevent you from working for months, if not years. With a lack of income, how do you pay for all the expenses associated with your personal injury case that includes paying a personal injury lawyer?

Are you better off financially if you litigate your case on your own? You will save money in legal fees, but you can expect to have trouble convincing a judge or jury that you deserve compensation for your injuries.

An experienced personal injury attorney often is the difference between a plaintiff winning a civil lawsuit and walking out of a courtroom empty-handed.

What Are the Most Common Expenses From a Personal Injury Incident?

If you were involved in an incident that caused one or more injuries, you can expect to pay for medical bills, property damage repairs, and other types of expenses. You also might lose your source of income because you cannot work. Although you must initially cover most of the expenses resulting from a personal injury incident, the goal of your attorney is to prove the defendant is legally liable for taking care of most, if not all, of the costs associated with your case.

Medical Bills

Medical bills represent the most common expense associated with personal injury cases. Although you pay for medical expenses out-of-pocket from the start, a highly skilled litigator can make sure you recover the cost of medical bills, as well as receive compensation for future medical expenses.

The first medical expense concerns the diagnostic tests run by your healthcare provider. The more injuries you sustain, the higher your bill for diagnostic tests. Then, you must cover the costs for treatment and therapy sessions. For serious injuries, you might have to pay ambulance costs, as well as the bills sent to you for emergency care and/or a hospital stay.

After paying for prescription medications and any assistive devices to improve your mobility, you can rack up medical bills that exceed $10,000.

Property Damage

Most people associate property damage with auto accidents. Repairing a vehicle can generate a repair bill that runs into the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. However, property damage expenses can hit you financially for a slip and fall incident. Maybe the fall shattered a fine piece of jewelry or destroyed an expensive winter coat.

If the property damage you have paid for resulted from the negligence of another party, you might have a compelling enough case to file a civil lawsuit. Without insurance, you have no other way to recoup the out-of-pocket expenses you already have paid for property damages.

Lost Wages

Little or no income coming in can leave you in dire financial straits. On the one hand, you are bleeding money to cover the costs of medical bills. On the other hand, you do not have the income to pay for your rapidly mounting expenses. Because of the financial distress you find yourself in, you must learn how to afford a lawyer without any insurance.

How Do I Afford a Lawyer Without Any Insurance?

Many personal injury attorneys that include the experienced personal injury lawyers at Morgan & Morgan operate on a contingency fee basis. This means you do not pay any upfront legal fees, such as paying for the notarization of documents and the filing fees charged by a civil court. A contingency fee arrangement means your lawyer gets paid when you get paid. Not having to pay upfront legal fees makes it much easier to afford a lawyer without any insurance.

However, you might not get the compensation you deserve if you hire a personal injury lawyer who charges an exorbitant contingency fee. Some personal injury attorneys charge a contingency fee that exceeds 40 percent, which means you share about half of what you win in just compensation with your legal counsel. You want to find an accomplished team of personal injury attorneys that charge a contingency fee that does exceed 30 percent.

Working with Morgan & Morgan helps you afford an attorney without insurance because you pay a contingency fee that falls below 30 percent.

Why Should I Not Agree to an Hourly Fee Arrangement?

You cannot learn how to afford a lawyer without any insurance if you agree to pay your legal counsel by the hour. An hourly pay scale can quickly increase your legal fees to a value that you cannot afford. Another reason not to agree to an hourly pay scale is it often leads to a less motivated litigator. A lawyer getting paid by the hour has no reason to wrap up a case quickly. The uncertainty of not knowing how much you will pay at the end of the legal process can distract you from the most important element of your case—winning your personal injury lawsuit. 

What Are the Types of Monetary Damages?

How to afford a lawyer without any insurance boils down to receiving monetary damages. An experienced personal injury attorney from Morgan & Morgan will help you gather and organize the evidence that proves the negligence of the defendant, as well as the medical records that confirm your injuries and the costs associated with treating them.

Special Compensatory Damages

The most important type of monetary damages, especially for a client without any insurance, is called special compensatory damages. Also referred to as economic damages, special compensatory damages cover the costs associated with medical expenses and repairing property damage. Suffering one or more injuries because of the negligent acts of the defendant in a civil case can put you deep into a financial hole. Special compensatory damages help you quickly climb out of a deep financial hole.

Special compensatory damages also cover lost wages and estimated future medical expenses.

General Compensatory Damages

Unlike special compensatory damages, general compensatory damages do not cover the costs associated with your personal injury claim. Instead, general compensatory damages help you cope with the pain and suffering that often accompanies personal injury incidents. For example, if you suffered serious burn injuries as a result of a negligent act committed by another party, you might have nightmares about close encounters with fire.

Your attorney bases the value of general compensatory damages on a percentage of the value of special compensatory damages.

Punitive Damages

When you file a personal injury lawsuit, you want to punish the defendant for committing one or more acts of negligence. Punitive damages penalize the defendant for causing you harm. If the defendant committed an intentional act of negligence, you might receive more money than if the defendant committed an unintentional act of negligence.

Learn More About How to Afford a Lawyer Without Insurance

If you suffered injuries because of the negligence of another party, you should not panic if you do not have insurance to cover the costs of medical bills and repairing property damage. You should contact an experienced team of personal injury attorneys to decide whether to file a civil lawsuit seeking monetary damages. 

When you hire the team of personal injury lawyers from Morgan & Morgan, you can afford our services without insurance. We charge legal fees on a contingency fee basis, which means you do not pay any upfront legal fees. In addition to operating on a contingency fee basis, Morgan & Morgan charges one of the lowest contingency fee percentages.

Schedule a free consultation today to learn about how to afford a lawyer without any insurance.