rudolph, israel, tucker and ellis

HOW DO ATTORNEY FEES WORK UNDER THE DEFENSE BASE ACT (DBA) & WILL I HAVE TO PAY MY ATTORNEY?

Video Transcription:


Under the Defense Base Act and Longshore Act, attorneys' fees essentially work in two ways. Under one scenario, we file the claim on behalf of the injured worker. They then have 30 days to reply to the filing of the claim, if they reply, and accept everything that we're requesting them to do for our client. It's a claimant paid fee. However, we never accept anything up front. We don't charge retainer fees, but instead, we follow the individual throughout the claim. Then on the back end of the claim when it comes time to settle, we build in our attorneys' fees at the end.

The second way is if we file the claim, and the employer carrier denies or controverts the claim, or they simply don't reply within 30 days of service of the claim, at that point, the fee liability is on the employer carrier in the event that we're able to obtain additional benefits for the injured worker.

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