What a Contingency Fee Really Costs in South Carolina
No retainer, no hourly bill, no fee unless we win — all true, and still not the whole story. Here is the whole story: fees, costs, liens, and the written agreement South Carolina requires.
The Short Answer: Nothing Up Front, a Percentage If We Win
If you're asking what a personal injury lawyer costs, you're probably also staring at an ER bill, a body-shop estimate, and a paycheck that stopped when the crash happened. So let me answer before I explain: hiring me costs you nothing today, nothing next month, and nothing at all unless money is recovered for you. My fee is a percentage of that recovery — a percentage you and I agree on in writing before I do an hour of work, not a number that appears at the end.
That's the honest headline, and nearly every injury lawyer in South Carolina will give you roughly the same one. But there's a gap between the headline and the full picture, and that gap — costs versus fees, the order the math runs in, the liens nobody mentions — is exactly where clients get surprised at settlement time. This page closes the gap. By the end you'll know what the written agreement must contain under South Carolina's ethics rules, what questions to ask any lawyer before signing, and why the only number I care about is the one on your check.
How a Contingency Fee Actually Works
A contingency fee flips the normal logic of hiring a lawyer. Instead of you paying for time — hourly bills, retainers topped up monthly — the lawyer invests the time and is paid a share of the result. No recovery, no fee. Three practical consequences follow:
- The courthouse door is open regardless of your bank balance. The person hit by a commercial truck and the person hurt in a parking-lot fender-bender hire a lawyer on the same terms: nothing down.
- My incentives point the same direction as yours. I'm paid from the recovery, so every hour I spend goes toward making the recovery bigger — not making a bill longer. A lawyer on the clock profits from a slow case. I don't.
- The risk of losing sits mostly on me. If the case recovers nothing, my time was free. That's the bargain — and it's also why I'm honest at the first meeting about whether you have a case at all. I'd rather tell you the truth at your kitchen table than discover it at mediation.
You'll notice I haven't named a percentage anywhere on this page. That's deliberate, and it isn't coyness. The percentage belongs in exactly one place: the written agreement you sign after we've talked through your specific case — face to face, questions answered, nothing rushed. A number floating on a website is marketing. The number in the writing is the law of your case.
The Rule Your Agreement Has to Follow: Rule 1.5
Contingency fees in South Carolina aren't a handshake tradition — they're regulated, by Rule 1.5 of the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct (Rule 407 of the South Carolina Appellate Court Rules). Rule 1.5(c) says a contingent fee agreement must be in writing, signed by the client, and it must state:
- the method by which the fee is to be determined — including the percentage or percentages the lawyer earns if the case settles, goes to trial, or is appealed;
- which litigation and other expenses will be deducted from your recovery;
- whether those expenses come out before or after the fee is calculated; and
- clear notice of any expenses you will be expected to pay, win or lose.
The rule keeps working after the case ends, too: the lawyer must give you a written statement showing the outcome and, if there's a recovery, the amount remitted to you and how that amount was determined. In other words, South Carolina requires the math to be shown — in writing, at both ends of the case.
Here's how I'd use that rule if I were the client: read the agreement against it. Take the four required items above and find each one in the document in front of you. If the trial percentage isn't stated, if the expense treatment is vague, if you can't tell whether costs come out before or after the fee — the agreement isn't done, no matter how warm the conversation was. The writing controls. A verbal promise about fees is worth the paper it isn't written on.
"Every client gets my personal cell number. Call or text me directly — you'll never chase a case manager."
Clients hear back from me the same day — and for emergencies, anytime.
— Thomas Spiro Conits
Fees Are Not Costs — and the Difference Is Your Money
Here's the distinction that surprises more clients than anything else on this page. The fee is what the lawyer earns for legal work — the percentage. Costs are the out-of-pocket expenses of actually building and proving your case. They are separate lines of math, and South Carolina's rule requires your agreement to treat them separately. Typical costs in an injury case:
- Filing fees to open a lawsuit in circuit court
- Medical records and imaging — providers charge for copies, and a documented case needs all of them
- Expert witnesses — a treating doctor's narrative report, an accident reconstructionist, an economist on a serious lost-earnings claim; experts bill for their time no matter how the case ends
- Depositions — court reporters and transcripts
- Mediation — the mediator's bill for a court-ordered session
In my practice, I advance the costs. You don't get an invoice in month three for a records fee; the case is built on my dime while you focus on treatment, and the costs are repaid out of the recovery at the end — itemized, line by line, on your closing statement.
Now the question clients don't ask and should: what happens to those advanced costs if the case is lost? Rule 1.5 requires the agreement to clearly notify you of any expenses you'll be expected to pay, and this is the paragraph where that answer lives. When you sit down with me, I put a finger on that paragraph and we read it together before you sign anything. Whatever lawyer you hire, do not sign until you can answer that question out loud.
One more honest note: costs scale with the case. A clear-liability claim that settles before suit might carry a few small records charges. A disputed case that runs through experts, depositions, and mediation costs real money to build — which is one reason the decision to file suit is a math decision, made with you, never a reflex.
Photo slot: tom-fee-agreement-walkthrough
The Order of Subtraction — the Fee Math Nobody Explains
Two fee agreements can name the identical percentage and still produce different checks for the client. How? The order the subtraction runs in.
Every settlement ultimately divides three ways: the fee, the costs, and you. The question is what the percentage gets applied to. If the fee is calculated on the gross settlement — before costs come out — the fee is larger and your share smaller. If the costs are deducted first and the fee is calculated on what remains, the fee shrinks and your share grows. Same percentage on paper; different money in your pocket. That's precisely why Rule 1.5(c) requires the writing to say whether expenses are deducted before or after the fee is calculated — the drafters knew exactly where the quiet money was.
And there's a third subtraction almost nobody warns you about: liens. If a hospital treated you, if your health insurer paid crash-related bills, if workers' comp covered you, they may have a legal right to repayment out of your settlement. Liens aren't a fee and aren't a case cost — they're a separate bite, and negotiating them down is real legal work that directly raises your net. It's some of the least glamorous, highest-value work I do.
Net to You Is the Only Number That Matters
This is the same principle behind my results page: every figure published there is shown net to the client, with context — because a gross settlement number is a marketing number, and you can't spend a marketing number. Before you accept any offer, I show you the whole waterfall on one page: gross, fee, costs, liens, net. You make the decision holding the real number, not the headline.
The fee question and the value question are cousins, and both deserve straight answers — I've written separately about what a car accident case is actually worth in South Carolina and how long a settlement takes. Read the three together and you'll know more about injury-case money than most people ever learn before signing.
If you can't come to me, I'll come to you.
I personally drive to clients' homes across Greenville and the surrounding counties — hospital rooms and kitchen tables included. You were just hurt; the last thing you need is a trip to a law office.
— Thomas Spiro Conits
Eight Questions to Ask Any Lawyer — Including Me — Before You Sign
Print this list, or just open this page at the consultation. A lawyer worth hiring will not flinch at a single one of these. If you get vagueness instead of answers, you've learned exactly what you needed to learn.
- What is the exact percentage — and does it change if suit is filed, at trial, or on appeal? South Carolina's rule requires the writing to state every stage. A number for each stage is an answer; anything else is not.
- Are costs deducted before or after the fee is calculated? You now know why this matters. Ask the lawyer to run a hypothetical settlement both ways and show you the difference.
- Who advances the case costs — and if the case is lost, do I owe them back? Get the spoken answer, then find the paragraph in the agreement that says the same thing.
- What expenses might I be expected to pay that aren't listed? The rule requires clear notice of any expense you'll bear. A confident answer belongs in the writing, not the handshake.
- Who handles my medical liens, and does negotiating them cost extra? Lien reduction is where a good lawyer quietly earns the fee twice.
- Will I see an itemized closing statement? Slightly a trick question — South Carolina requires one. But watch how the lawyer answers; a lawyer who welcomes the math is a lawyer who did the math.
- Will you tell me my net figure before I'm asked to accept any offer? Not the gross. The net. In advance. Every time.
- If I change lawyers mid-case, what happens to the fee? Awkward question, revealing answer. You're allowed to leave; ask how that's handled before you arrive.
I answer all eight at the first meeting, unprompted — it's how I open the fee conversation, not something I wait to be cornered into. And the meeting happens wherever suits you: my office downtown, or your kitchen table, because I come to you.
Contingency Fee FAQs
Do I pay anything up front to hire a personal injury lawyer?
Not with me. There is no retainer, no hourly billing, and the consultation is free whether or not you hire me. The fee is a percentage of the recovery, agreed in writing before the work starts, and it is owed only if money is actually recovered for you — no fee unless we win.
What is the difference between the fee and case costs?
The fee is the lawyer's percentage of the recovery, earned for the legal work. Costs are the out-of-pocket expenses of building the case — filing fees, medical records, expert witnesses, deposition transcripts, the mediator's bill. South Carolina's Rule 1.5 requires the written agreement to spell out both, including whether costs come out before or after the fee is calculated.
Does the percentage go up if my case goes to trial?
Many contingency agreements set different percentages for different stages — before suit, after filing, at trial, on appeal — and South Carolina's rule requires the writing to state the percentage for each. I walk through every stage with you at signing, so nothing about the fee is ever a surprise. If a lawyer cannot tell you the trial percentage at signing, keep interviewing lawyers.
What happens to the case costs if we lose?
Your written agreement has to answer that question before you sign it — the rule requires clear notice of any expenses you will be expected to pay. When you sit down with me, I point to that exact paragraph and we read it together before anything gets signed. Never hire a lawyer who is vague about what losing would cost you.
How do I know the settlement math was done correctly?
South Carolina requires your lawyer to give you a written closing statement showing the outcome of the case, the amount remitted to you, and how it was determined. I go one step further: you see the full breakdown — gross settlement, fee, costs, liens, and your net — before you accept any offer, not after. It is the same net-first standard I hold my results page to.
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Free consultation. No fee unless we win. If getting to an office is hard right now, Tom will come to you.
Office: 100 Williams St, Greenville, SC 29601 · (864) 777-1000