Every injury attorney uses the familiar advertising slogan: "no fee until we collect." It's true that personal injury attorneys generally do not charge clients anything upfront. The problem is that the fee they charge at the end of the case is extremely high.

Consider a simple car accident settlement for $30,000. The attorney will charge $10,000 (1/3 of the settlement). There are a lot of car accident claims that settle for $100,000 without the attorney doing much work at all, but the attorney will still charge $33,333!

Sometimes a 1/3 fee is fair. But in a simple case you might be better off paying an attorney for his time rather than paying a full 1/3 at the time of settlement.