If you’ve been injured in a Kentucky car accident or motorcycle accident, one of your first questions is probably, “How much does a car accident lawyer cost?”
The answer is simple. At Desmond Law Office, you pay nothing upfront. My fee is contingent upon recovering money for you. If I don’t recover money, you don’t owe me an attorney’s fee.
Since 1993, I have represented people injured in Kentucky automobile accidents and motorcycle accidents, and I limit my legal practice to those types of cases. The Kentucky Bar Association won’t let me say I am a “specialist” in car accidents, but they will let me say that “I limit my legal practice only to car accidents and motorcycle wrecks!” So, I don’t handle any other area of the law, and yes, I would not have a successful legal practice if I did not know what I am doing. In 2025, I personally recovered over $3,000,000 for my clients.
While I can compete against the big injury firms, every car wreck lawyer claims “we win” or “we have the biggest recoveries”. The reality is that the success of every injury claim from a car wreck is based upon the facts of the wreck, the seriousness of the injuries, and the insurance coverage that applies to your personal injury claim. So, even though I don’t think any injured victim should handle their own car wreck claim(s) because they are complicated and involve tort law, contract law, insurance law, and health insurance law, I hope the information I provide you with below can answer your questions about car accidents in Kentucky.
Nevertheless, my commitment to personal service is what I call The Desmond Difference, and it is why you can call or text my personal cell phone at 502-609-7657.
How much does Desmond Law Office, PLLC, cost to represent me for an injury claim from a car accident?
When it comes to car wrecks, the attorney fees of most firms are contingency-based. This means that the injury firm charges a percentage of the total amount recovered as their attorney fee instead of an hourly rate.
My attorney fees are contingent, which means you only owe me a fee if I recover money on your behalf, and you don’t owe any upfront money to hire me. Also, I do not charge attorney fees for the damage to your car or your loss of use claim.
For any case that does not involve a lawsuit, I charge 33.33% of what I recover as an attorney’s fee. My attorney’s fee does increase to 40% when a lawsuit is filed because my firm’s expenses and the required time to prosecute your injury claim increase significantly. Additionally, you don’t owe me any fee whatsoever if I don’t recover money on your behalf. Reputable personal injury lawyers generally work on this same contingency-fee basis are doing this.
More importantly, I have a guarantee in regard to my attorney’s fee, and it is written in my Firm’s contract:
My attorney’s fee will never exceed your net recovery.
In other words …
You will always receive more money from your settlement than I do.
In other words, you will always walk away with more money from your case than I do! Just one way the Desmond Difference can increase prevents you from losing your money to medical bills and attorney fees.
The Kentucky Bar Association requires me to inform you that case expenses and court costs are in addition to the above-discussed attorney fee, and the client is responsible for the same. Further, the attorney fee percentages discussed above are computed before any deduction for case costs and expenses.
How much does a Kentucky car accident lawyer charge?
It varies depending upon the law firm. For any case that does not involve a lawsuit, I charge 33.33% of what I recover as an attorney’s fee. My attorney’s fee does increase to 40% when a lawsuit is filed.
Do I have to pay upfront?
No! Injury attorneys do not typically require upfront fees, and I certainly do not. I also advance the case costs necessary to prosecute your claim.
Can attorney fees be negotiated?
You need to understand that attorney fees, for injury claims arising from car wrecks, are negotiable and are not set by law. So yes, you can negotiate a lower attorney’s fee.
Do attorney fees increase if a lawsuit is filed?
Yes. Typically, most firms increase their fee by 6% or more once a lawsuit is filed.
What happens if we lose?
A good injury lawyer will have a provision in their contract that says you owe them nothing, $0!
When are attorneys charging too much?
In my opinion, most car accident claims that settle without litigation should not require a 40% attorney fee. Every client should understand exactly when and why a higher fee would apply before signing a contract. The big TV advertisers have started this, and I am sorry, but there is no good reason to pay a 40% attorney’s fee for a car wreck case that is not in litigation.
On this issue, think ahead to what your net settlement will be, i.e., the amount you put in your pocket from your personal injury claim. If you agree to a higher attorney’s fee from day one, from your net settlement, you will be paying that 40% attorney’s fee, reimbursing that law firm for their litigation costs, and paying the health insurance for the amount they have paid on your behalf, known as a subrogation claim or lien. In other words, before your injury case ever begins, you might be agreeing to pay out 50% or more of the amount you recover. You can do better.
Is your car wreck lawyer negotiating down your medical expenses, thereby putting more money in your net settlement?
Does your injury lawyer understand that a crucial part of his job is to negotiate down your medical expenses and thereby increase your net recovery from the personal injury claim, even if that chiropractor or doctor gave out that attorney’s information to you?
I have been doing motor vehicle law in Kentucky for over 20 years. As a result, there are several medical doctors that I work with regularly that do recommend my law firm often. However, while I appreciate their support, my ethical duties as a lawyer are to my client, and part of those duties is to maximize the total recovery from my client’s personal injury claim. After all, if I recover $100,000 for my client but pay out $98,000 of that $100,000 to everyone but my client, I have not done my job as an injury lawyer.
My job, as your injury lawyer, is to both maximize the recovery on your personal injury claim AND minimize any deductions from that personal injury.
This may mean calling a doctor that has referred you to me and negotiating down the balance on your account so that you can put more dollars, from your personal injury settlement, in your pocket. If your injury attorney is not willing to do this, walk away and find a new lawyer.
Can my attorney charge a fee off the medical bills?
What about charging attorney fees off of your medical expenses? Typically, attorney fees are charged off the total personal injury settlement, which will include your paid and unpaid medical expenses. However, a good injury lawyer will minimize the medical bills that are included and need to be paid out of your injury settlement.
Your injury lawyer should be willing to negotiate directly with the medical provider to lessen their balance. More importantly, one of those procedures I use regularly is to use my client’s health insurance to reduce my client’s medical bills. For example, if my client has a $30,000 emergency room bill, I submit the total amount of my client’s medical bill, the billed amount, to the insurance carrier for the at-fault driver. But if I can get those medical bills paid by my client’s health insurance, the health insurance plan may pay the hospital $5,000 to satisfy that $30,000 medical bill. While I have to address the subrogation lien of the health plan from my client’s personal injury settlement, I just reduced the amount that comes out of the client’s settlement by $25,000. That’s just one way a good personal injury lawyer will earn their attorney’s fee.
Using your no-fault coverage to increase your net injury settlement
Also, the injured person should act quickly after a car accident and reach out to a personal injury lawyer so we can preserve the no-fault benefits. Essentially, your own automobile insurance might have no-fault insurance, PIP insurance, or med-pay coverage that can pay part of your medical bills. If you can preserve this coverage on your own automobile insurance policy, you can use it to cover part of your medical expenses.
In Kentucky, the no-fault coverage tends to be $10,000. In my above example, the client had a $30,000 emergency room bill, but the health plan satisfied that emergency room bill by paying the hospital only $5,000. If the hospital was paid by the PIP carrier, the $10,000 of PIP coverage would be gone, and the hospital would still have a $20,000 balance. However, if the health plan pays that emergency room bill, the health insurance would have a subrogation claim for the $5,000 they paid, which can be paid by the no-fault coverage, and there would still be about $5,000 to cover the client’s co-pays and deductibles.
So, while contingent attorney fees are charged off the total injury settlement, there are a lot of things a good injury lawyer can do to minimize those medical bills, thereby increasing a client’s net recovery.
Before hiring any personal injury lawyer, ask one simple question:
“What will I actually put in my pocket after attorney fees, medical bills, and expenses?”
That’s the number that matters.
If you’d like me to explain exactly how attorney fees work and what your case may be worth, call or text me anytime at (502) 609-7657. The consultation is free, and you’ll speak directly with me—not a case manager.
The Desmond Difference
When you hire me:
✓ You work directly with Attorney Jim Desmond.
✓ You have my personal cell phone.
✓ I personally return your calls and texts.
✓ I personally negotiate your case.
✓ I personally prepare your lawsuit if one becomes necessary.
What Happens After You Hire Me?
On the first day we:
- Open every insurance claim.
- Preserve your no-fault benefits.
- Request your police report.
- Order emergency room and ambulance records.
- Notify all insurance companies that you are represented.
- Begin protecting evidence immediately.
The biggest complaint is that attorneys are not at fault for legal malpractice but rather for a lack of communication. So often, I deal with people who another attorney already represents, and they can’t tell me where their injury claims stand because, as they put it, “My attorney would never return my phone calls!” That’s why I always use my cell phone: so my clients have a resource to rely on when they need it. That’s the Desmond Difference!
Call or text 502-609-7657 anytime. Why? Because it is the best way possible to get your motor vehicle accident claim moving quickly and in the right direction.
Jim Desmond’s Practical Advice on Attorney’s Fees:
- Don’t hire a lawyer based solely on television advertising.
- Ask what you will actually receive after attorney fees, medical bills, and expenses.
- Ask whether the lawyer will negotiate your medical bills.
- Ask whether you’ll work directly with the attorney.
- Call or text me anytime at (502) 609-7657 if you’d like to discuss your case.