A Perspective from Attorney and Victim’s Advocate, Raymond Trueblood-Konz
In an upcoming election season, you might see a ballot initiative that would limit attorney fees when a client agrees to pay a lawyer on a contingency fee basis rather than an hourly fee basis. You’ve probably seen plenty of slimy lawyer billboards and think that this might seem like a good idea. But it’s a scam designed to make it harder for you to find a lawyer.
On the face of it, it might appear this ballot initiative is the result of grassroots efforts by regular Nevadans. The truth is quite the opposite: Uber is behind efforts to drive lawyers who hold it accountable out of business. Instead of investing in passenger safety, Uber is spending millions of dollars to trick you out of your ability to hire a lawyer. Uber will be able to afford to hire any lawyers they want, while victims will find it difficult or impossible to find a lawyer able to take on their case.
The Truth Behind Uber’s Agenda
One-third contingency fee arrangements are a cornerstone of the American civil justice system. But now, Uber wants to change the rules to benefit big companies. They want to limit the contingency fees of lawyers in Nevada with the hope of driving them out of business. If they are successful in Nevada, they will likely take this strategy elsewhere.
Behind the scenes, there is a sneaky motivation: Uber has a serious sexual assault problem. The number of sexual assaults occurring in Uber vehicles is shocking. Instead of fixing the problem, Uber is sponsoring an effort to make it harder for victims to seek justice.
Thousands of passengers have come forward accusing Uber of failing to protect them from being assaulted or harassed by drivers. The company is facing a huge number of lawsuits across the country, including in Nevada. Instead of stepping up to fix the problem, Uber is pouring millions of dollars into a political action committee (PAC) called Nevadans for Fair Recovery, whose real purpose is to stop victims from being able to effectively sue them. That’s right—Uber is spending millions to make it nearly impossible for victims to get justice, rather than spending that money to keep passengers safe.
What is a contingency fee?
Imagine you are a Nevada resident who has been hurt by a large corporation—maybe you were injured due to a faulty product, denied fair compensation after an accident, or even worse, you were a victim of a sexual assault. Now, imagine you’re facing an uphill legal battle against a company with virtually limitless resources, like Uber, which can afford to pay elite lawyers $1,000 an hour or more to fight against you in court. They throw up roadblocks, excuses, and delays, driving up the cost of justice in an effort to make it unattainable.
Meanwhile, you can’t afford to pay a lawyer thousands of dollars upfront. That’s where contingency fees come in. They help level the playing field to give ordinary folks a chance against big corporations.
Contingency fee attorneys don’t charge a penny unless they get a recovery for their clients. They work for free, often working hours a day for years at a time. They also pay expenses required to investigate and prove your case, which can total tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars you can’t afford to pay on your own.
If those lawyers can’t get you a settlement or verdict, they get nothing. Nothing for their efforts and nothing for the money they invested in the case on your behalf. If they are able to make a recovery, their fee comes out of that recovery. If a case goes to verdict, the jury decides what it is worth. If a settlement is being negotiated, the client decides what amount is acceptable.
Until a recovery is made, these lawyers are free to you. This means the lawyer takes on all the financial risk of the lawsuit.
Contingency fee arrangements are not unique to car crash cases. With limited exception, almost any dispute can be handled on a contingency fee basis, including sexual assault cases, intellectual property cases, property loss cases, and insurance coverage disputes.
Contingency fees are essential to our justice system. They give victims who cannot afford to pay hourly legal fees and out-of-pocket expenses the opportunity to pursue justice. Without contingency fee arrangements, justice would be reserved for the rich.
Contingency fee lawyers add settlement value
When trying to negotiate a settlement, the only leverage a personal injury victim has is the threat that, if a defendant or insurance company will not treat you fairly, you will take your case to a jury and let them decide what your case is worth. But if you don’t have a lawyer, the threat of going to trial is not very credible. Without a lawyer, defendants and insurance companies know you will likely get lost in procedural hurdles and technical requirements.
When you hire a lawyer, you change those dynamics. If you have an attorney to navigate the civil justice system for you, you are showing wrongdoers that you are prepared to go to trial if necessary. Once you hire a lawyer, a wrongdoer will typically pay more. Hiring a lawyer adds value, and that added value usually exceeds the amount of the recovery that goes to compensating your lawyers for their work.
Contingency fees are not a money-grab
No case is a guaranteed winner. Even if a case seems great at the outset, hurdles can arise that can jeopardize an injury victim’s path to justice. Even when all the facts are on your side – and they never are – a stubborn defendant or insurance company can drag a case on for years, driving up costs at every opportunity.
Similarly, not all lawyers are the same. We have all seen slimy billboards and tasteless commercials in which so-called “ambulance chasers” brag about how rich they’ve gotten. They often “churn-and-burn” their cases, settling them quickly and for less than their full value, using a business model that puts volume over maximizing each individual client’s unique interests.
Those “ambulance chasers” give the profession a bad name. But they are not representative. Good lawyers don’t rely on flash and bluster, but instead they get big successes through hard work and hard-earned experience. They put their clients’ interests first, working extra hours even though they could make more money if they practiced a different kind of law. For example, if a lawyer works for three years, five hours a week on a case, and the case settles for $15,000, that lawyer’s ⅓ contingency fee would only equate to an hourly rate of $6.41. If that same lawyer lost a trial, her fee would be $0.00, and she would have to absorb the expenses she incurred in getting the case to trial.
In short, contingency fee work is not a money grab, even if some make it seem that way. Uber is trying to use greedy “billboard” lawyers as a trojan horse, but don’t be fooled. It is not trying to protect you; it is trying to prevent the good lawyers from ever being able to afford to take your case.
How does Uber’s scam work?
Here’s why every Nevadan should be outraged and ready to oppose this underhanded attempt to dismantle our civil justice system.
Uber is trying to cut contingency lawyers’ normal fees in half. Why? To drive contingency lawyers out of business. By capping fees at half what personal injury lawyers usually make, this ballot initiative would dry up the market, leaving victims with nowhere to turn. In other words, if lawyers can’t earn enough to cover their time and expenses, they simply won’t be able to take on cases, particularly cases against well-funded corporations involving injuries that are anything less than catastrophic.
Uber’s ballot initiative scam would cap contingency fees at no more than 20%. That seems simple on its face, but in reality, the actual calculation will be even lower, for reasons the ballot initiative fails to explain. The ballot initiative also fails to disclose the practical effects capping fees would have. For those reasons and others, the ballot initiative is currently being challenged in court and may not actually make it onto your ballot.
The ballot initiative is deceptively designed to make you think victims will get more than they would if ⅓ contingency fees are outlawed in Nevada. But don’t be fooled. The reality is that if this measure passes, most people won’t get a settlement at all, because they won’t be able to find a lawyer able to take their case. Even if you do find a lawyer, these companies will use the lack of fees and expenses as yet another excuse to shortchange you.
Why This Matters to You
Without access to contingency fee arrangements, regular folks will have no chance to fight back against corporate giants like Uber. This is exactly what Uber wants. It wants to create a legal landscape where only those who can afford to pay expensive hourly fees can bring a case to court. Meanwhile, corporations like Uber can continue their negligent behavior without fear of being held accountable.
Contingency fee arrangements are for victims who can’t pay fancy hourly corporate lawyers, like Uber does. It takes a lot of resources to pay someone $1,000 an hour. Injury victims rarely have those kinds of financial resources, but Uber can pay those expenses easily, especially if they don’t invest their resources in passenger safety or compensating victims. They can pay as much as it takes to keep regular folks from getting justice.
The Devastating Impact on Sexual Assault Survivors
The implications of this ballot measure are especially grim for survivors of sexual assault. According to a recent New York Times report, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Uber for failing to perform adequate background checks and failing to protect passengers from sexual predators. These lawsuits have been crucial in holding Uber accountable and pushing them to improve safety standards. However, if this measure passes, it will slam the door shut on survivors seeking justice.
This is not speculation; it’s by design. The New York Times report cites three people familiar with Uber’s legal strategy that have confirmed that the company hopes the initiative will insulate it from the flood of litigation related to driver misconduct. One source even said Uber’s ultimate goal is to make it harder for lawyers to file suits, frivolous or not, against them.
The Broader Attack on Victims’ Rights
This initiative isn’t just about Uber; it’s part of a broader, decades-long effort by big corporations to undermine the rights of ordinary citizens to seek compensation in court. Corporations have long sought to disparage plaintiffs’ lawyers as “ambulance chasers” or greedy opportunists, but the truth is, these lawyers are often the only ones standing between victims and complete injustice. They play a critical role in our legal system by holding powerful entities accountable for their actions.
By interfering with your freedom to negotiate a reasonable continency fee with a lawyer of your choosing, Uber is joining the ranks of other giant corporations who have used similar tactics to avoid accountability, from Big Tobacco to Big Pharma. It’s a dirty playbook, but it’s one that has worked before.
The Bottom Line
This ballot measure is a dangerous, deceitful attempt by Uber to shut the courtroom doors on Nevada residents. It’s a gift to big corporations, at the expense of ordinary people. It is crucial for Nevadans to see through Uber’s smokescreen and understand the devastating impact this initiative would have on victims’ rights.
If you see this measure on the ballot, vote “no!” Share this information with your friends and family. Let’s not allow Uber, or any other corporation, to buy their way out of accountability and justice.
Remember, this isn’t just about one company or one issue. It’s about preserving the rights of all Nevadans – of all Americans – to seek justice when they are wronged. Don’t let corporate greed take that away from us.