WHAT THE LAWYER TAKES

Every personal injury lawyer in Michigan promises no fee unless you win. Almost none of them explain what happens after the win — when case expenses, Medicare, a health plan’s reimbursement, unpaid medical balances, and the attorney fee all land on one settlement statement, and the number at the bottom is nothing like the number you were told.

Michigan trial attorney Joseph Dedvukaj has spent three decades on the other side of that conversation. In What the Lawyer Takes, he opens the machinery of his own profession and shows you the arithmetic — including the parts that don’t flatter lawyers.

Inside

• Why Michigan computes the attorney fee on the net after case costs, not the gross — a court rule that puts one-third of your case expenses back in your pocket, and that most Michigan clients have never heard of
• What a case actually costs to build, shown through three real closed files
• Which medical liens get reduced by formula, which get reduced by negotiation, and which usually get paid in full
• When an insurance company can be ordered to pay your attorney’s fee itself, on top of your benefits
• How to read a settlement statement line by line — and the ten-second test that reveals whether the fee was calculated correctly
• Twenty questions to ask any lawyer before you sign
• What really happens if you fire your lawyer, and why the fee doesn’t double

Written for the client, not the profession

For people hurt in a Michigan car, truck, or motorcycle crash who want to understand where their money goes before the check is written. Includes worksheets, a lien checklist, and a plain-English translation of the court rule governing every contingency fee in the state.

You should not need to file a grievance to find out how your own case worked.

Where this book explains the accounting at the end of a case, CRASH TO VERDICT follows the case itself — one Michigan car accident from the intersection through PIP benefits, lawsuit, deposition, mediation, and trial.

Joseph Dedvukaj has represented injured people throughout Michigan for more than three decades, and is the author of several books on Michigan injury law published by Square Lake Press. See all titles →