Call Us (337) 433-1414
Call Us (337) 433-1414
Yes. You can fire your personal injury attorney at any time, for any reason, and you don’t need anyone’s permission to do it. Switching lawyers also does not usually mean paying two separate contingency fees. Under Louisiana law, the contingency fee is generally allocated between the former and successor attorneys. If your case feels stuck, a free consultation with a Lake Charles personal injury attorney will tell you whether it actually is.
Yes, and the decision belongs to you alone. You don’t need your current lawyer’s agreement, and you don’t have to show a good reason or point to anything they did wrong. The relationship runs on your say-so, so ending it is your call.
One caveat applies late in a case. If you’re close to trial, the judge may need to approve the substitution of counsel. Judges usually allow it, but they weigh whether the change would push the trial date, which is a reason to act sooner rather than the week before.
No. One fee, divided. Louisiana courts have ruled that a case carries only one contingency fee no matter how many firms worked on it. When the case resolves, that single fee gets split between the firm you discharged and the firm you hired, based on what each one actually contributed.
The arithmetic doesn’t change for you. For example, if one-third is the highest applicable contingency percentage the client agreed to and the case settles for $90,000, changing lawyers does not ordinarily turn that $30,000 contingency fee into two separate $30,000 fees. Instead, the applicable fee is allocated between the attorneys.
Case costs work differently from fees. Your former firm can still be owed the expenses it advanced, things like filing fees and medical records, and those come out of the settlement alongside the fee.
Look for patterns, not single bad days. These are the ones that affect what your case is worth:
Slowness by itself usually isn’t one of them. Personal injury cases take a long time even when they’re handled well. What your claim is worth stays unclear until your medical treatment is far enough along to show what your recovery looks like, and settling before that point means guessing at the number. A case moving slowly for that reason is being handled correctly.
Start with the new firm, because they handle the mechanics. They send the discharge letter and request your file, then work out the fee division with your former attorneys. You generally don’t have to make that call yourself, and the file moves between the two offices rather than through you.
Your deadlines don’t reset, though, which is the reason not to sit on the decision. Louisiana Civil Code Article 3493.1 gives you two years to file suit over an injury sustained on or after July 1, 2024. Injuries before that date fall under the old one-year deadline, so an older claim leaves far less room to change course.
The Johnson Firm has represented injured people in Lake Charles and across Southwest Louisiana since 1980. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you pay no attorney’s fees unless compensation is recovered, and a consultation about a case another firm is already handling is free.
Call (337)-433-1414 or contact us online to have a personal injury lawyer in Lake Charles, LA, look at where your case stands.