How Much Do Medical Malpractice Lawyers Make?
Medical malpractice is defined as a deviation from the standard of practice accepted by the medical community. Failure to abide by this standard and causing an injury to a patient can result in a medical malpractice lawsuit against the physician. An attorney who handles medical malpractice cases can make significant amounts of money, depending upon the type of work he or she does each year.
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What Does a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Do
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A medical malpractice lawyer is a lawyer who can either present a case or defend a case based upon allegations of a deviation from the standard accepted practice of medicine. If a medical malpractice attorney works full time handling a case from the beginning of the case though its conclusion, the attorney can earn significant sums of money, ranging from five to seven figures.
Specialization Increases Compensation
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Areas of specialization of a medical malpractice attorney can increase the amount the attorney can earn per year. If an attorney specializes in areas such as obstetrical and/or gynecological malpractice or surgical malpractice, the attorney could easily earn millions of dollars per year.
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Method of Compensation
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A medical malpractice attorney can be compensated in various ways. Frequently, the medical malpractice attorney works on a contingency-fee basis; in other words, the attorney receives a certain percentage of the amount her client recovers at the conclusion of the case. Many times, this percentage is one-third of the amount the client receives, less the court fees and any costs incurred during the representation. Conversely, the attorney may work on an hourly or retainer-based fee. If there is a retainer, there will be a retainer agreement that indicates the amount of money the lawyer will receive and what services are included in the representation.
Level of Compensation
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If the lawyer receives a portion of the client's recovery pursuant to a contingency fee and the client receives millions of dollars, the lawyer can receive millions of dollars as well. However, if the lawyer works on a retainer basis, the fee is limited to the amount of the retainer, so the amount the lawyer is paid is limited to the retainer amount.
Billable Hours
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When determining the amount of money an attorney earns in a private firm performing medical malpractice law tasks, the attorney will generate what is referred to as "billable hours." These are hours that are directly related to a specific legal task on behalf of a client. The more billable hours the lawyer generates per year, the more significant income the lawyer generates.
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References
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Nicola Baron
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Comments
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Richard Hastings
Dec 27, 2009
These cases are quite costly to develop and are vigorously defended by insurance companies. You failed to mention that are large percentage of these cases reult in Defendant's verdicts where the attorney not only gets no fee but generally absorbs the significant our of pocket expenses. The only reason a medical malpractice lawyer would make large fees is because the attorney would hold the offending doctors who commit malpractice accountable. If these lawyers did not operate under these circumstances severely injured parties and families of deceased indiviuals would not receive compensation from the doctors who commit malpractice. People generally do not criticise this arrangement if they need these services. Lastly, tort reform in many states limits both compensation to injured parties and legal fees to their clients.
