Everything is negotiable. Best way for the middle and lower class is to get contingency agreement (no pay unless you get an award). If you have to hire a lawyer, ask upfront what the fees are, ask them to make you a budget up to but not including trial. Ask for the heck of it what the extra trial cost would be so you know what your stakes are. The goal is to settle early before trial costs. If the lawyer can't make a detailed budget (itemized to written discovery, depositions, motions, trial preparation, trial) and if the lawyer can't say they would stick to the budget within a certain % error, then find another lawyer who knows and has experience enough to be able to give you a budget and work within that budget. Actually, if you're not in a rush, you can compare budgets. Or early in the case take your lawyer's budget and compare what budget the lawyer gave you to what another lawyer would charge. Best advice: Go contingency if at all possible. If hourly, get a budget and make the lawyer stick to it and tell you what they'll do for you if they can't stick to budget - make it clear in writing you hire them because of the budget. You know they'll say they can't guarantee something won't come up that wasn't in the budget, but they should stick to within 10% error, right? If they can't, would they stick within 50% error (charge you 1.5 times the budget they make)? Then 50% error is too much uncertainty in expense for you. If they have no plan and no willingness to charge a lower price when off budget, that tells you how confident they are in their ability to budget. You'll at least be able to judge from their reaction if you want to go forward. Put in writing you are depending on them being on budget and % error discussed, you are hiring them due to budget and put in writing your understanding of what they will do if they go off budget. Everything is negotiable. If you put it in writing make sure the lawyer's contract where you hire them has a written note that includes your agreement on the budget (they have boilerplate to protect themselves from anything verbal, you need to protect yourself from their budget errors) You don't want to be billed beyond what they said it would cost and clean out your life savings or put you in debt long after the case because a lawyer WILL say they will withdraw from your case unless you pay their bill, leaving you screwed with a half-done case facing trial alone). Good luck.