What Are Legal Fees and Disbursements, and Who Covers the Upfront Costs?

October 14, 2026

What's the difference between legal fees and disbursements, and who pays for what upfront?

Legal fees are your lawyer's compensation, charged as a percentage of what we recover for you. Disbursements are separate out-of-pocket case costs. At Gluckstein Lawyers, we advance disbursement costs, and you only pay us when you're paid, nothing upfront.

Understanding Personal Injury Lawyer Fees and Disbursements.

When you review a retainer agreement, two different terms come up: fees and disbursements. They cover different things, and it helps to know how each one works before you move forward.

What Are Legal Fees?

Legal fees are what you pay for your lawyer's time and work on your case. We handle personal injury claims on a contingency basis, so a personal injury lawyer contingency fee follows a sliding scale:

A maximum fee of 33% of the total compensation and costs we recover by settlement or judgment
A lower fee of 25% to 30%, when warranted by your circumstances, the stage your case concludes at, and other factors

We're only paid when you're paid. There are no upfront fees unless you've explicitly agreed to such an arrangement.

What Are Disbursements?

Disbursements are the out-of-pocket costs needed to build and move your case forward. These can include:

Expert reports
Court filing fees
Medical records

Who Pays Upfront?

We advance these disbursement costs for you, so you don't have to pay them out of pocket while your case is active. When your case resolves by settlement or judgment, the disbursements we advanced are repaid from your recovery, alongside our contingency fee.