Lawyers in Illinois usually aren’t this efficient.
We received a call last week on Monday by a guy who was owed $30,000.00 in commissions from his former employer.
On Tuesday he met with the lawyer we suggested and hired him.
On Wednesday the attorney faxed a letter with a threat to sue, outlining the facts.
On Thursday the company’s attorney called the attorney that wrote the letter and promised that a check to resolve the matter was forthcoming.
On Friday a check for $30,000.00 arrived.
This result is not typical. Usually having a lawyer write a letter does nothing, but in this case it did everything. Usually a lawsuit or negotiations are needed, in this case it wasn’t.
The only problem for the worker owed the money is that he didn’t have the funds to hire an attorney to begin with so he came to us looking for a Chicago contingency lawyer. That is he wanted someone who required no money up front and only gets paid if they are successful. Attorneys who work that way typically receive 1/3 of what they recover or in this case, $10,000.00.
It’s risk-reward for the client and the attorney. This time the client would have been better off paying by the hour, but they didn’t know that on Monday. The lawyer made a lot of money for not much work, but also has taken cases on a contingency basis where he worked hundreds of hours only for an employer to go bankrupt and have him recover nothing.
As far as what arrangement is best for you, that really takes a crystal ball. But don’t expect that if you hire an attorney on Tuesday that you’ll have everything you want by Friday. It usually does not happen that way.
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Wow, that is fast.