Medical lawyers' fees and other legal costs

The amount your medical lawyers or attorneys charge you for legal services may include the medical lawyer's fees and other legal expenses and costs. If the medical lawyer or medical attorney will represent you in a court proceeding, you will have to pay a filing fee, which may include other court costs.

On your medical lawyer's bill, you may find several costs, which may or may not be charged separately. There are medical lawyers who prefer to lump these costs together as a separate item on medical attorney's bill, while others may include some of these costs in their medical lawyer's fee.

Before hire your medical attorney, find out first whether these costs are included or whether they will be itemized on your bill.

Costs in addition to your medical attorney's time may include:

• Filing fees and court costs;
• Photocopying;
• Telephone and postage charges;
• Paralegal time;
• Messengers;
• Computer or research related costs;
• Secretarial and staff time;
• Deposition and court reporter costs;
• Facsimiles (faxes);
• Experts, consultants, and witness fees;
• Investigators;
• Process Servers (delivery of legal documents relating to case); and
  
• Travel expense.

This is not a complete list and there may be other charges. It is a good idea to ask your medical lawyer for a written estimate of anticipated costs to make sure you understand all the different costs that you will have to pay.

For example, you will want to find out if there is a set rate for some costs (e.g., $0.15 per page for copying costs). If you are concerned about the costs building up, you can also tell your lawyer that any costs over a certain amount have to be approved by you in advance. You also may be able to negotiate in advance the amount charged for many of these costs.