Earnings of a Medical Malpractice Lawyer

The medical community has outlined a standard of practice for healthcare professionals when providing medical services and any deviation from it is regarded as medical malpractice. If this standard is not followed and any injury is caused to a patient by a physician, then a medical malpractice suit will be filed against them. Significant sums of money can be earned by an attorney who specializes in medical malpractice cases, depending on the type of work they do on a yearly basis.

What do they do?

A medical malpractice attorney is one who can either defend or present a case because of the allegations made by a client regarding deviation of a physician from the standard practice. If the attorney chooses to work full time i.e. handles a case from the beginning and sees it to its conclusion, it is possible for them to earn a lot of money. This means that they can actually earn a salary between five to seven figures.

Specialization increases compensation 

The yearly earnings of a medical malpractice lawyer can be increased if they have a particular area of specialization. There are medical practice attorneys who earn millions of dollars every year because of this specialization. For instance, they may be experts in areas such as surgical malpractice, gynecological and obstetrical malpractice etc.

Method of Compensation

There are numerous ways that a medical malpractice attorney can be compensated. A Boston Medical Malpractice Lawyer writes on his website, “Most of the time, these lawyers work on the basis of contingency fee, which means that they receive a specific percentage of the amount that they manage to recover for their client at the end of the case“. In majority of the cases, one-third of the amount given to the client is paid to the attorney, but this is without legal costs such as court fees that is incurred during the case. However, it is also possible for the lawyer to work on a retainer or hourly basis. If retainer is chosen, an agreement will be signed between the client and attorney, mentioning the amount that will be paid to the lawyer and the services they will provide.

Level of Compensation 

The lawyer will be able to earn millions of dollars if they work on a contingent fee basis and are able to recover millions of dollars on behalf of their clients. But, if they opt to work on the basis of a retainer, they will only earn the amount of the retainer. Thus, their earning is limited.

Billable Hours 

When a lawyer works for a private firm and handles medical malpractice cases, the amount of money they earn will be dependent on the ‘billable hours’ they generate. These are those hours that are directly to a particular legal task for a client. The income of the lawyer is affected by their billable hours so the more hours they generate, the more they will earn.

All these factors have an impact on the earning of a medical malpractice lawyer. The attorney can increase their compensation if they change the aforementioned factors.