How Much Does It Cost To Hire A Fort Myers Personal Injury Lawyer After An Accident?

By David B. Pittman, Esq. — Founder, Pittman Law Firm, P.L. | Last updated May 12, 2026

The answer most people are looking for: almost every legitimate personal injury firm in Fort Myers, including ours, works on a contingency fee. You pay nothing up front. You pay nothing during the case. If we do not recover money for you, you owe us no fee. That is not a sales pitch — it is a requirement built into Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5, and it applies across the state.

That is the headline. The rest of this post is the part most websites skip — what the Florida Bar actually allows lawyers to charge, how fees and case costs are different from each other, how liens and PIP get paid before you see a check, and the few places where this arrangement can still go sideways on a client who did not read the agreement carefully. I have practiced long enough on Daniels Parkway and along the McGregor Boulevard corridor to know which questions people wish they had asked at the kitchen table before they signed.

What Florida law actually says about contingency fees

Three pieces of law do most of the work here, and you should know all three before you sign anything.

The first is Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5, the rule that governs lawyer fees. Subsection (f) lays out the contingency fee structure for personal injury cases. Up to the first one million dollars of recovery, a Florida injury lawyer can charge 33 1/3% if the case is resolved before a lawsuit is filed, or 40% if the case is resolved after a lawsuit has been filed and the defendant has served an answer. Between one and two million the rate drops to 30%. Above two million the rate drops to 20%. An appeal or post-judgment work can add another 5%. The rule also requires the contingency agreement to be in writing, signed by the client, and given to the client to keep. If a Fort Myers lawyer quotes you a number above this schedule without an additional court-approved order, something is wrong. You can read the rule in plain text on the Florida Bar’s published Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.

The second is section 768.81, Florida Statutes, the comparative fault statute that the Legislature reworked in 2023. In plain English, if a jury decides you are more than 50% at fault for your own injury, you take nothing home. If you are 50% or less at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault. That used to be a soft factor in settlement negotiations. After the 2023 reform it is a hard line, and it changes how cases are valued from the very first phone call. The full text is on the Florida Legislature’s statute site.

The third is section 95.11(4)(a), Florida Statutes, the statute of limitations. As of the 2023 reform, you have two years from the date of the negligent act to file most personal injury lawsuits in Florida, not the four years many people still believe. The link to that statute is here. The clock matters for fees because a case that walks in the door at 22 months has a very different cost profile from a case that walks in the door at 22 days. The first one almost has to be filed; the second one can often be worked through pre-suit. That choice drives the 33 1/3% vs. 40% question by itself.

I also want to flag section 627.736, Florida Statutes, which governs Personal Injury Protection — the $10,000 of no-fault medical coverage that comes with every Florida auto policy. PIP is the bill payer of first resort for the first weeks after a crash, and how it is handled affects what is left at the end. The text of the PIP statute is here.

Four fee patterns from our Fort Myers practice

Every fee conversation in Fort Myers boils down to one of four patterns. Knowing which one you are in makes the rest of the conversation easier.

• Pre-suit settlement, under one million dollars. The most common pattern. The carrier evaluates the file, we exchange a demand and a response, the case settles before we ever file a complaint. Fee is 33 1/3% of the recovery under Rule 4-1.5(f)(4)(B). The client never sees the inside of a courthouse.
• Filed suit, under one million dollars. The carrier will not pay a fair number pre-suit, so we file in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, the defendant answers, and the rate steps up to 40%. The stepped-up rate exists because the work goes up too — depositions, motions, written discovery, mediation, and the real possibility of trial in front of a Lee County jury at the Justice Center on Main Street.
• Mid-seven-figure recovery. Once the recovery climbs past a million dollars, the percentage on every additional dollar steps down to 30% up to two million, and 20% above two million. So a client with a three-million-dollar recovery does not pay 40% across the board — they pay 40% (or 33 1/3%) on the first million, 30% on the second, and 20% on everything past that.
• Appellate or post-judgment work. If a trial verdict is appealed, an additional 5% can be added to the fee, but only after the trial court signs off on it. This rarely comes up on the front end of a case, but it is in the rule and it should be in the written agreement.

The cost side of the contingency arrangement most people miss

Here is the part of the contingency-fee conversation that is easy to get wrong: fees and costs are two different things, and a client who does not understand the difference can be surprised at the end of a case even when nothing improper has happened.

Fees are the lawyer’s percentage. Costs are real out-of-pocket money the firm advances on your behalf while the case is open. On a typical Fort Myers crash file, costs include things like court filing fees, sworn medical records, traffic homicide investigator reports, deposition transcripts, mediation fees, accident reconstruction work, and treating-doctor record fees. On a routine pre-suit auto case the costs may run a few hundred dollars. On a serious commercial-vehicle case with reconstruction work, costs can run well into five figures before the file is even close to a demand. We absorb that risk up front because the alternative — asking an injured person with a closed-head injury to write a $7,500 check for a reconstruction engineering witness — would mean only wealthy people get to bring cases. That is not how this is supposed to work.

the place where this gets sideways is the question of what happens to costs if there is no recovery. Some firms eat their own costs in a no-recovery case. Some firms do not. Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5 does not require one approach over the other; it requires the written agreement to spell out which approach the firm is using. Our agreement is plain about it. When you sit down with any Fort Myers injury lawyer, ask the same question I tell my own family to ask: “If we lose, do I owe you anything for costs?” Read the answer in the agreement, not just the one you hear at the conference table.

The other piece most people do not think about is liens. PIP pays the first $10,000 of medical bills under section 627.736. Past that, you are usually leaning on health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, hospital lien laws, or in some cases letters of protection from the treating doctors. Every one of those has a claim on your settlement at the end. A good firm spends real time negotiating those down — sometimes that work moves more money to the client than the headline settlement number does. Bills get paid first, costs come next, fee comes next, the client gets the rest. That is the order on every closing statement that goes out of our office.

What to do before you sign a contingency-fee agreement

If you are about to hire any Fort Myers injury lawyer, here is the short list I tell people to walk through at the kitchen table before they sign. I give this same list to my own friends and family.

• Read the percentage schedule out loud. Make sure it tracks Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5(f) — 33 1/3% pre-suit, 40% post-suit, stepping down at one and two million. If the agreement has a different number, ask why in writing.
• Ask the cost question directly. “If there is no recovery, do I owe you anything for costs?” Whatever the answer is, find it in the written agreement before you sign.
• Ask how PIP and liens are handled. Will the firm reconcile PIP under section 627.736? Will they negotiate medical liens down before the closing statement? Some firms do this work seriously; some do not.
• Ask who actually works your file. In our office, the claims side is handled day to day: talking to the carrier, coordinating with the treating doctors, and tracking the medical record file, while I handle the legal strategy and the litigation. You should know which human at any firm you hire is going to pick up the phone when you call.
• Get the closing statement in writing. At the end of every case, you should receive a single page that shows: gross recovery, liens paid, costs, fee, and what is left for you. If a firm cannot show you a sample closing statement on the way in, that is a flag.
• Do not sign in the hospital. If a runner shows up at the bedside with a contingency agreement, send them home. That is not how reputable Fort Myers firms work, and Florida has specific anti-solicitation rules for a reason.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Do I have to pay anything up front to hire a Fort Myers personal injury lawyer?
No. The consultation is free, and our fee comes out of the recovery at the end of the case. If we do not recover for you, there is no fee. Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5 requires the contingency agreement to be in writing and signed by both client and lawyer, and it is given to you to keep.

Q2. What percentage do Florida personal injury lawyers charge on a contingency fee?
Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5(f)(4)(B) sets the schedule. Up to one million dollars, the fee is 33 1/3% before a lawsuit is filed, or 40% once a lawsuit is filed and an answer is served. Between one and two million the rate drops to 30%, and above two million the rate drops to 20%. Appeals can add another 5% with court approval.

Q3. What is the difference between attorney’s fees and case costs?
Fees are the lawyer’s percentage of the recovery. Costs are out-of-pocket case expenses like court filing fees, records, depositions, and engineering or medical witnesses. Most reputable Florida firms advance costs and recover them only out of a recovery. Read the fee agreement so you know what happens to costs if there is no recovery — Bar Rule 4-1.5 requires that to be in writing, not assumed.

Q4. How are medical bills, PIP, and health insurance liens paid out of a settlement?
After settlement, the funds are deposited in the lawyer’s trust account. PIP under section 627.736 is reconciled, hospital and provider liens are negotiated and paid, federal Medicare/Medicaid obligations are satisfied, costs are repaid, the fee is calculated, and the rest goes to you. A closing statement spells all of it out on one page.

Q5. Does Florida’s 2023 comparative fault reform change what I can recover?
Yes, and a lot of people still do not know about this change. Under section 768.81 as amended in 2023, a person found more than 50% at fault recovers nothing. That makes the fault investigation, the crash report under section 316.066, and witness work more important to the bottom line than people realize.

Key Takeaways

• Almost every Fort Myers personal injury lawyer works on contingency. There is no up-front cost to the client, and there is no fee if there is no recovery — but it must be in a written agreement under Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5.
• The Florida Bar’s contingency schedule is 33 1/3% pre-suit and 40% post-suit on the first million, stepping down to 30% between one and two million and 20% above two million.
• Fees and costs are different things. Costs are advanced by the firm and reimbursed at the end. Ask in writing what happens to costs if there is no recovery, because that is the place the conversation can go sideways.
• PIP under section 627.736 pays the first $10,000 of medical bills. After that, liens from health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, hospitals, and treating doctors all have to be reconciled before a check is cut to the client.
• Florida’s 2023 reform to section 768.81 made the comparative-fault line a hard cap at 50%, and section 95.11(4)(a) shortened the statute of limitations on most negligence cases to two years. Both of those facts change how a fee conversation actually works in 2026.

Talk to our office

If you or someone in your family has been hurt in a crash anywhere in Lee or Collier County and you are trying to figure out what hiring a lawyer is going to cost you, call our office. The consultation is free, we will walk you through the written fee agreement line by line, and there is no fee unless we recover for you. Call 239-992-8259 to talk to me directly.

About the Author

For more than thirty years, David B. Pittman, Esq. has handled personal injury cases out of the firm he founded, Pittman Law Firm, P.L., with a sustained focus in Fort Myers and across Lee County. The firm’s Fort Myers presence handles a steady stream of serious-injury work along the Daniels Parkway, Six Mile Cypress, McGregor Boulevard, Cleveland Avenue, and Summerlin Road corridors, and along I-75 between Estero and Bell Tower, representing injured clients across Lee and Collier Counties with a particular focus on commercial-vehicle, complex-liability, and serious-injury cases.

David is a graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina School of Law. He holds an AV-Preeminent rating with Martindale-Hubbell and is a member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

David has held a Florida real estate broker license for twenty-five years, a credential that shapes how the firm reads the property side of premises cases. The firm handles personal injury cases across Lee and Collier Counties, serving Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples, Cape Coral, Estero, and Lehigh Acres, with offices at Windsor Place in Bonita Springs (main) and Fort Myers (satellite). Call 239-992-8259 for a free consultation.

The information on this page is general information and is not legal advice for any particular case. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship with Pittman Law Firm, P.L. Florida Bar advertising rules govern this content.