Michael Schafle, Esq.Michael Schafle, Esq.Yes — contingency is the standard structure, with no upfront fee and no hourly bill; the fee comes out of a recovery, typically 33%–40%. This Franklin County asbestos practice puts that percentage in writing before a single record is pulled, whether the man worked Letterkenny or a Chambersburg forging floor.
| Item | Typical amount and timing |
|---|---|
| Upfront retainer | $0 — not charged in mesothelioma or asbestos lung cancer claims |
| Hourly billing | $0 — contingency work is not billed by the hour |
| Attorney fee | 33%–40% of the amount recovered, fixed in writing at signing |
| Case costs (records, depositions, experts, filing fees) | Advanced by the firm; commonly 2%–10% of recovery, repaid from it |
| Medical record and work-history retrieval | Handled by the firm; no per-page charge to the family |
| Outcome with no recovery | No attorney fee owed under standard mesothelioma fee agreements |
| Pennsylvania filing window | 2 years from diagnosis; 2 years from death in a wrongful death claim |
| Asbestos trust claims | Same contingency structure; percentages sometimes lower than trial fees |
| First conversation | No charge, and it ends in a yes or a no on whether there is a case |
What a Chambersburg mesothelioma family pays, and when
A contingency fee is a share of money recovered, not a bill. In Pennsylvania asbestos and mesothelioma work the share commonly falls between 33% and 40%, and the exact figure is printed in the fee agreement the client signs at the kitchen table. Lower percentages sometimes apply to asbestos bankruptcy trust claims, which are paperwork claims rather than trials. Higher percentages generally attach to cases that go through discovery and toward a jury. The number does not move after signing. A family should read the percentage out loud, ask what happens if the case resolves in three months instead of three years, and get the answer in the document — not on the phone.
Fees and costs are two separate things, and the difference is where most confusion starts. Costs are the hard expenses of proving exposure: hospital and pathology records from WellSpan and Hershey, union and depot employment records, court filing fees, deposition transcripts, and reports from industrial hygienists and pulmonologists. In mesothelioma litigation the firm advances those expenses and is repaid from the recovery, not from the household. Ask for costs to be itemized in writing and ask whether the family owes costs if the case ends with nothing — in standard asbestos agreements, the answer is no. A man on a fixed income should never be writing checks for deposition transcripts.
Nobody remembers the brand name on a bag of joint compound from 1974, and no case requires it. Exposure is proven from the outside in: Social Security earnings records, union local records, depot and shop job orders, purchase and specification documents from the plant, product identification testimony from men who worked the same floor, and databases built from thirty years of prior asbestos cases naming which insulation, gasket, packing, and cement products sat in which buildings. The family's part is small — where he worked, roughly when, and what the job was. The lifting is the firm's. That division of labor is the whole point of a contingency arrangement.