Dell and Schaefer charge a 20% attorney’s fee after injured victim struck by a United States Postal Truck

Author: Attorney Daniel Villalobos

Client Struck By A U.S. Postal Truck

The laws regarding victims of accidents caused by drivers of U.S. Postal Trucks, differs from normal accident cases in Florida. When a person is struck by a postal truck, the federal law under the Federal Tort Claims Act is applicable. Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, if an attorney represents a victim of an accident, the attorney is limited to a 20% attorney’s fee if the case is resolved without filing a lawsuit and 25% if the case if a lawsuit is filed. This is mandatory for all cases. If you have a case against the post office and your attorney charges, attempts to charge, or has charged already, an attorney fee in excess of the amount allowed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, then you may have a claim for damages against your attorney.

In the case at issue, our client was driving his car on a quite road in Miami (yes these roads do exist sometimes). Suddenly and without warning, as my client was stopping at a stop sign, a postal truck lost control and struck our client from behind. The impact was so great that our client’s vehicle was then launched forward into the middle of an intersection. As soon as his car was launched into the intersection, another vehicle was driving in the perpendicular direction and T-boned our client’s car causing it to spin around 180 degrees.

Dell and Schaefer Negotiate A Settlement

Immediately after the accident, our client underwent an intense physical therapy regimen. After the therapy was over our firm filed a bodily injury demand against the U.S. Post Office. Our firm sought monetary damages for bodily injury, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, disfigurement, disability, mental anguish, past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and impairment of ability to earn future wages. After a lengthy negotiation, the case resolved for $25,000. Fortunately for the client, our fees were reduced under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Our fees were only $5,000. Our client received $20,000 out of a $25,000 settlement! He was absolutely delighted that our firm charged him a proper fee. Our client had no idea that under the Federal Tort Claims Act that our fee was reduced, and had our firm attempted to charge the standard 33% fee, our client would have never known he was being short-changed. The other victim in the second car was not so lucky. After his case resolved, he discovered that his lawyer charged him 33% of the recovery. He found out that our client only paid a 20% attorney fee. Naturally he was upset and he contacted his lawyer. The lawyer passed it off as if it was his secretaries mistake and refunded the difference. I guess the world will never know if the other lawyer really knew or didn’t know he was short-changing his client, however our client knew for sure that our firm gave him top notch, aggressive, ethical, and honest representation from the beginning all the way to the end.

Please know that the standard fee for non-federal or non-state government claims is 33%. Call us for a free consultation. We do not charge a cost or fee unless we recover money for you.