If you get injured on the job and you are considering hiring an attorney, the question is: “How much is it going to cost me to get representation?” Well, the answer is 25 percent of what that attorney gets for you. This is going to be the same amount regardless of what attorney you hire because that amount is regulated by state law in Georgia. They get 25 percent of what they recover for you. If you are already receiving benefits at the time that you hire your attorney, the attorney doesn’t get any part of that. If you hire an attorney and shortly thereafter your benefits are started up voluntarily by the insurance company, again, your attorney doesn’t get any part of that.
When you hire an attorney, they are required to file a copy of the contract you signed with the State Board of Workers’ Compensation. And any fee of more than $100 has to be approved by the board. So, in other words, anytime the attorney wants to charge you money for work they did for you, they have to show to the satisfaction of the state board that they did something to earn that fee. Now most of the time, where the attorney is going to earn a fee in a case is at a settlement at the end of the case. If you are worried about paying part of your settlement to your attorney, don’t. If I or another experienced workers’ comp attorney are representing you on your case, I’m going to get you a much larger settlement than you would get from the insurance company voluntarily. Again, attorney fees on workers’ compensation cases are 25 percent of what the attorney gets for you. These are monies you weren’t getting yourself. So really, there is no downside to hiring an attorney on a workers’ compensation case.
