Blended and/or Flat Fees: As part of our continuing effort to hold down fees and facilitate the referral and handling of litigation matters, we recognize that all matters referred to us are not the same and we welcome the opportunity of discussing blended and/or flat fees for particular matters entrusted to us on a case-by-case basis. We will also entertain fee cap agreements, whereby we strive not to exceed a predetermined fee level unless and until you have given us permission to do so. We believe that many fee agreements should be determined on a case-by-case basis based on the facts and circumstances of each matter entrusted to us.

 File Investigation Hybrid Fees:  Many of our clients utilize our firm to conduct investigation of large losses, including fires, catastrophic injuries, and the like. Proper investigation of such losses takes a great deal of time and requires a lot of subrogation experience. The right experts must be engaged and prepared, investigations must be coordinated and scheduled, investigative and attorney/client privileges must be protected, evidence must be identified and preserved so as to avoid the harsh effects of spoliation, and an evaluation of recovery potential must be made and reported to the client. Such complex investigations do not always result in recognition of third-party liability or a subrogation lawsuit being filed. MWL cannot conduct all of such investigations on a contingency fee basis, so we offer a hybrid fee which we feel is fair for both us and our clients. We handle the investigation on our usual low hourly basis. Once we have identified third-party liability or subrogation and file suit, we convert the file to our normal contingency fee, giving our client full credit for all hourly attorneys’ fees incurred to date. In an age when the quality of immediate action and investigation on claims often literally determines the third-party recovery potential, this has become a very popular program with our clients.

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