How Dog Bite Lawyer Fees Work in New York

The rule that controls a Manhattan bite claim

New York County lies within the First Judicial Department, and its Appellate Division has adopted 22 NYCRR 603.25(e). The provision reaches any claim or action for personal injury or wrongful death, resolved by judgment or by settlement, in which the attorney's compensation depends on the outcome, and it excludes claims alleging medical, dental or podiatric malpractice. A fee at or below the scheduled amount is deemed fair and reasonable. A fee above it, the rule says, is the exaction of unreasonable and unconscionable compensation in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct, unless a court authorized it by written order.

Schedule A, the graduated ladder

The first of the two options in the rule steps down as the recovery grows. Fifty percent of the first $1,000 recovered. Forty percent of the next $2,000. Thirty-five percent of the next $22,000. Twenty-five percent of any amount above $25,000. Serious bite injuries settle well past that last breakpoint, so the twenty-five percent tier carries most of a substantial recovery and the blended rate falls as the number grows. Run that arithmetic on the figure realistically in play, not on the headline percentage.

Schedule B, the flat alternative

The second option is a percentage not exceeding thirty-three and one third percent of the sum recovered, and it is available only if the initial contractual arrangement provides for it. There is a tradeoff written into the rule. Choosing the flat option removes access to the procedure by which counsel may later apply for additional compensation on grounds of extraordinary circumstances. Under Schedule A that route stays open. Where counsel believes in good faith the scheduled fee is inadequate because of extraordinary circumstances, an application may be made on affidavit to the designated justice. The client and anyone holding a lien get written notice and an opportunity to be heard.

Net or gross, and the choice the client makes

Subdivision (e)(3) is the part of the rule most likely to change what actually lands in a client's account. The percentage may be computed one of two ways, and the client selects which in the retainer agreement or letter of engagement. One method uses the net sum recovered, after deducting expenses and disbursements for expert testimony and investigative or other services properly chargeable to the claim. The other uses the gross sum before any such deduction, and is available where the attorney has agreed to pay those costs under Judiciary Law 488(2)(d). The agreement must describe both methods, explain the consequences of each, and show which one the client picked. Costs as taxed, including interest on a judgment, count as part of the amount recovered. No deduction is made for a lien in favor of a hospital, for medical care by doctors and nurses, or of a self-insurer or carrier.

The malpractice scale that does not apply here

Judiciary Law 474-a is frequently quoted as though it governed all injury work in New York. It does not. Its sliding scale reaches medical, dental and podiatric malpractice actions only. The cap runs thirty percent of the first $250,000 recovered, twenty-five percent of the next $250,000, twenty percent of the next $500,000, fifteen percent of the next $250,000, and ten percent of anything above $1,250,000. A claim against the owner of a dog that bit someone on a sidewalk in Chelsea is an ordinary personal injury claim, so the First Department schedule applies and this one does not. If a hospital's handling of the wound became its own claim, that separate claim would fall under 474-a.

A child's claim goes before the court

Judiciary Law 474 governs fee agreements made with the guardian of an infant. Compensation dependent on the success of the child's claim, or set as a percentage of the child's recovery, is invalid and unenforceable unless the agreement was made subject to the court's power to fix the amount. On a recovery, award, compromise or settlement, the attorney applies on notice to the guardian, the court proceeds summarily to determine the value of the services by affidavit, reference or examination of witnesses, and then orders a suitable amount out of the money. Given how many bite victims in the city are children, this mechanism governs a large share of cases.

What the paperwork and the County Clerk cost

Rule 1215.1 of the Rules of the Chief Administrator requires a written letter of engagement before the representation begins, or within a reasonable time after where that is impracticable. It must set out the scope of the services, the fees, expenses and billing practices, and, where it applies, the client's right to fee arbitration under Part 137. A signed retainer covering those subjects satisfies the rule, and a change in scope calls for an updated letter. On the litigation side, CPLR 8018(a) fixes the index number fee at $190 payable in advance, plus $5 for records management and $15 for the cultural education account, so $210 opens the file. Filing a note of issue costs $125 where no request for judicial intervention was needed. City licensing runs $8.50 a year for a spayed or neutered dog and $34 for an unaltered dog older than four months, with a $2 fine for each year a license went unrenewed.