Put two contingency agreements for the same rear-end collision side by side on a kitchen table and they will look almost identical: two pages, a percentage near the top, a paragraph about costs, signature blocks at the bottom. The differences are in four places, and each one is worth real money. One contract takes its fee off the gross recovery and advances costs against the file; the other takes its fee after costs come out, steps up at a defined trigger, and says in plain words what happens if nothing is recovered. Same lawyer quality, same claim, different arithmetic.
The percentage, and what number it multiplies
A third is the number most people expect, and it is common, but the figure by itself tells you almost nothing until you find the noun it attaches to. Gross recovery means the fee is calculated on the whole settlement check before anything is subtracted. Net recovery means costs come out first and the fee applies to what remains. On a $60,000 settlement with $4,000 in case costs, a third of gross is $20,000 and a third of net is roughly $18,667, a difference of a little over thirteen hundred dollars that never appears in the conversation because both contracts said the same friendly fraction. Read the sentence, not the number.
Check also whether the percentage covers everything or only part of the recovery. Some agreements carve out the medical payments coverage on your own auto policy, or an uninsured motorist claim, and treat those as separate recoveries with their own fee. Others apply one percentage to the whole file. Neither approach is wrong, but a careful reader wants the answer in writing rather than in the memory of a meeting, because the med-pay check often arrives months before the liability settlement and the fee treatment will already have been decided by then.
The step-up, and what actually triggers it
Most contracts raise the percentage once the matter moves past a certain point, and forty percent after suit is filed is a familiar figure. The clause to read closely is the trigger. Some say the fee rises when a complaint is filed, which is a date you can look up. Some say when the case is set for trial, or when an answer is served, or when a mediation date is scheduled. One version leaves the timing entirely with the office; the other version ties it to a public docket entry. The second is easier to verify a year later, when the file has grown and the memory of the first meeting has faded.
Some agreements go further and add a third tier for appeal. That is normal, and an appeal genuinely is a separate piece of work, but the careful reader confirms whether the appellate percentage applies to the whole recovery or only to the increase won on appeal. Ask for the answer, and then ask for it to be written on the page and initialed. Lawyers do this routinely; it is not an awkward request, and a file that starts with clear terms tends to close with fewer arguments about the settlement statement.
Case costs, and who carries them
Case costs are the out-of-pocket spending on the claim: medical records at a per-page charge, a filing fee in the hundreds, a court reporter for each deposition, an accident reconstruction expert whose invoice can run into five figures. The firm usually advances them and recovers them out of the settlement. The contract should say whether it charges interest on those advances, whether it marks up in-house copying and mileage, and whether there is a dollar threshold above which the client is asked before the money is spent. A clause setting that threshold at, say, $2,500 keeps expensive decisions in front of the person paying for them. The Federal Trade Commission oversees how consumer contract terms are presented, and a cost clause that survives a slow reading is the one worth signing.
If the claim loses
The two contracts diverge most sharply here. One says no fee and no costs if there is no recovery, which is the arrangement most people assume they are getting. The other says no fee, but the client remains responsible for advanced costs, which is a real obligation that can reach thousands of dollars on a case that went to a defense verdict. Both versions exist in the market and both are enforceable. What matters is knowing which one you signed, so ask for the sentence to be pointed out and read it aloud before the pen moves.
A contingency agreement is short enough to read completely in fifteen minutes, and a lawyer who wants the case will wait while you do. Take a copy home, mark the four places, and come back with questions.