What You Need to Know
- If you were hurt in an accident, the honest answer is nothing up front. Injury claims are commonly handled on contingency: no hourly fee and no retainer to start, with the firm typically advancing case expenses. The fee comes out of the money recovered, and if there is no recovery there is no attorney fee. What you may owe for advanced costs is a separate question your written agreement has to answer.
- “No fees unless we win” is the common personal injury model, not a special offer. It is a baseline to expect rather than a reason by itself to pick one lawyer over another, and it speaks only to the attorney fee. What actually differs between firms is how they handle case costs and what they tell you before you sign.
- “Free to start” is not the same as “free and clear.” Three things can come out of a settlement or verdict: the attorney fee (a percentage), the case costs the firm advanced, and any medical bills or liens. What lands in your pocket is the recovery minus those.
- What happens if you lose is a fair question, and the Nevada Rules of Professional Conduct require the answer in writing. Under Rule 1.5(c), your signed contingency agreement must state, in boldface type, whether you are liable for expenses regardless of outcome, and must state that in the event of a loss you may be liable for the opposing party’s attorney fees and will be liable for the opposing party’s costs as required by law.
- A general, non-injury dispute is a different animal. If you are suing a neighbor, a contractor, or over a contract, contingency is less common. You are looking at a court filing fee ($270 to open a civil case in Clark County as listed on the court’s current schedule), the litigation costs that follow it, and a fee arrangement that may be hourly, flat, contingent, or something else.
- Waiting to “save up” is the costliest move of all. Many Nevada injury actions run on a two-year period, though accrual, tolling, claim type and defendant can change it, and a few claims may be brought at any time: an action for injury arising from sexual assault, or from sexual abuse or sexual exploitation suffered before the plaintiff turned 18, may be commenced against the alleged perpetrator or a person convicted of it at any time (NRS 11.217, NRS 11.215). A free consultation costs nothing, so there is no financial reason to delay one.
Most people who type “how much does it cost to sue someone” are picturing the same thing: a lawyer who wants a big retainer, court fees they cannot cover, and the risk of owing even more if it goes badly. That picture is accurate for some kinds of lawsuits. For an injury claim, it is almost entirely wrong, and the gap between the two is why so many people who had a real case never made the call.
Before anything else, sort yourself into one of two situations, because the cost answer is completely different for each:
- You were injured in a crash, a fall, or another accident someone else may be responsible for. Jump to the injury-case answer below. This is what most of this page covers.
- You have a general dispute with a neighbor, a contractor, an employer, a landlord, or over a contract or unpaid debt. Skip to the court-cost breakdown. The upfront costs are real there, and this page gives you the ballpark.
For an Injury Case, It Costs Nothing to Start
If your case is a personal injury claim, the money question has a short answer: you pay nothing up front, and you owe no attorney fee unless the case recovers money for you. Whether you owe anything for advanced case costs if it does not is set by your written agreement, and it is the question to ask before you sign.
This works because injury lawyers are paid on a contingency fee. Instead of billing you by the hour or asking for a retainer, the lawyer takes an agreed percentage of whatever they recover, and only if they recover something. Nevada expressly allows this. Nevada Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5(c) provides that “a fee may be contingent on the outcome of the matter for which the service is rendered,” except in a matter where the rule itself or another law prohibits it. Rule 1.5(d) sets out those prohibitions: no contingent fee for representing a defendant in a criminal case, and no fee in a domestic relations matter whose payment or amount depends on securing a divorce or on the amount of alimony, support or a property settlement in lieu of it.
There is a second, quieter part of the arrangement that matters just as much: the firm usually advances the case costs. Filing fees, medical records, accident-report copies, expert opinions, and the like get paid by the firm as the case moves, not out of your pocket week to week. You are not writing checks while you are also dealing with medical bills and lost work.
What this means for you: if the only thing stopping you from talking to a lawyer is that you do not have money for one, that obstacle does not exist for an injury claim. The cost of finding out whether you have a case is a phone call.
“No Fees Unless We Win” Is Standard, Not a Selling Point
You will see “No Fees Unless We Win” on nearly every injury firm’s website, on billboards, and in TV ads. It is worth understanding what it does and does not promise, because it is easy to read more into it than it says.
What it means is real and useful: the attorney fee is contingent, so if the case does not recover money, you do not owe the lawyer for their time. What it does not mean is that a case carries no costs or no risk at all. “Fees” and “costs” are two different things, and the phrase only speaks to the first.
Because contingency billing is the common model in claimant-side injury work, “no fees unless we win” is closer to a baseline than a differentiator. The things that genuinely differ are further down: how a firm treats the case costs it advances, whether it explains the math before you sign, and how it handles the “what if we lose” conversation honestly. When you are comparing firms, those are the questions that matter. (For more on that comparison, see how to choose a personal injury lawyer and the questions worth asking any injury lawyer.)
What Actually Comes Out of Your Recovery
“Free to start” is true. “Free and clear” is not, and a straight answer here is more useful than a slogan. When a case resolves, up to three things are typically deducted before you see your share:
- The attorney fee. A percentage of the recovery. For most injury claims Nevada leaves that percentage to your written agreement rather than setting it by statute, and what Rule 1.5(c)(1) does require is that the method of calculating the fee, including the percentages that apply on settlement, trial or appeal, be stated in that agreement. Percentages and stage-based tiers vary by firm and case type, so the useful move is to ask for the exact percentage at each stage rather than assume a market norm. How tiered structures generally work is covered in more depth in how car accident lawyer fees work. There is one important exception, covered next.
- The advanced case costs. The expenses the firm fronted, repaid out of the recovery at the end.
- Medical bills and liens. Health insurers, medical providers, or government programs may have a right to be repaid from the settlement. This can meaningfully change your net, and it is worth understanding early; the mechanics are their own topic in how medical liens work in Nevada cases.
Two details decide how the first two interact, and Rule 1.5(c) requires your written agreement to state both, in boldface type: whether case expenses are deducted before or after the fee is calculated, and whether you are liable for those expenses regardless of outcome. Ask about them. They are not fine print; they change the final number.
The One Nevada Fee Cap Most People Never Hear About
Most articles on this subject say Nevada does not regulate contingency percentages at all. That is not quite right, and the exception matters if you are evaluating a medical case.
Under NRS 7.095, an attorney “shall not contract for or collect a fee contingent on the amount of recovery for representing a person seeking damages in connection with an action for injury or death against a provider of health care based upon professional negligence in excess of 35 percent of the amount recovered.” The cap applies to all forms of recovery, including settlement, arbitration and judgment, and “recovered” means the net sum recovered after deducting the disbursements or costs incurred in prosecuting or settling the claim. The statute limits that deduction: your own medical-care costs and the law office’s general and administrative expenses are not deductible disbursements or costs.
Two things follow. First, the statute is a prohibition, not a guideline: in such an action an attorney “shall not contract for or collect” a contingent fee above 35 percent of the amount recovered, so a contingency agreement on a medical-malpractice claim cannot set a higher percentage. Second, the cap is specific: it applies to professional-negligence claims against health-care providers, not to an ordinary car-crash or premises claim. The statute’s history line shows it has been amended several times since it was added by initiative petition in 2004, most recently in 2025, so confirm the current figure for your case rather than relying on a number you read anywhere, including here.
Here is how the arithmetic works, using round figures for illustration only. Suppose a claim settles for $30,000. A one-third fee is $10,000. Add $2,000 in advanced case costs and $3,000 in medical bills to be repaid, and the client’s net is about $15,000. Change any input and the net changes with it.
This is a hypothetical example for illustrative purposes only. Actual case outcomes depend on specific facts, evidence, and circumstances.
What this means for you: the headline settlement number is usually not the number that reaches your bank account. When someone quotes you a figure, the useful question is always “and what do I actually net after the fee, the costs, and any bills.” If your share is also reduced because you were partly at fault, Nevada’s comparative negligence statute, NRS 41.141, is the reason; how damages are calculated walks through that math.
What If You Lose?
This is the fear underneath the whole question, and it deserves a direct answer rather than reassurance.
Under a standard contingency agreement, if the case does not recover money, you generally owe no attorney fee. That is the whole point of the model. The case costs the firm advanced are handled by the terms of your written agreement, which is exactly why Rule 1.5(c) requires that agreement to state, in boldface type at least as large as the largest type used in it, whether you are liable for expenses regardless of outcome. Firms differ here, and the only reliable answer is the one in your signed agreement. Confirm the no-recovery expense term in writing rather than assuming it.
There is one more exposure most people never hear about, and Rule 1.5(c)(4) requires your agreement to state it: “That, in the event of a loss, the client may be liable for the opposing party’s attorney fees, and will be liable for the opposing party’s costs as required by law.” In plain terms, a losing party can be ordered to pay some of the other side’s court costs. How likely that is depends on the case, and on rules such as offers of judgment and other fee-shifting provisions, so it is worth asking how those apply. Any honest fee agreement names the exposure up front.
What this means for you: the right question to ask before signing is not just “what is your percentage.” It is “if we lose, what, if anything, do I owe you, and what could the other side try to make me pay.” A firm that answers both plainly is telling you how it operates.
Who Actually Writes the Check: Usually an Insurer, Even Though You Sue a Person
A lot of hesitation about suing is not really about money at all. It is about not wanting to go after a friend, a relative, a neighbor, or a small business, and about the worry that a lawsuit will take money out of someone’s personal savings.
It is worth being precise here, because the reassurance is real but the mechanics are often described sloppily. You do sue the person or business you say is responsible. They are the named defendant, not their insurer. Someone claiming against another person’s liability policy has no contract with that insurer, and the Nevada Supreme Court has held that such a third-party claimant lacks standing to sue the insurer for bad faith and has no private right of action against it under NRS 686A.310 (Gunny v. Allstate Insurance, 108 Nev. 344, 830 P.2d 1335 (1992)). What changes the practical picture is that their insurer typically steps in to defend the claim and to pay covered liability up to the policy limits. So in the ordinary case the money comes from a policy even though the lawsuit names a person.
That distinction matters in both directions. It is why a defendant’s coverage matters so much to whether a claim is worth pursuing: if the responsible party has no insurance and few reachable assets, even a strong case can be hard to collect on, and that is one of the first things a lawyer evaluates. It is also why the reassurance has limits. Exclusions, policy limits, and a verdict that exceeds coverage can all leave a defendant personally exposed, so “the insurance pays” is the usual outcome rather than a guarantee.
What this means for you: if a relationship is the thing holding you back, that is worth raising in a consultation rather than deciding on your own. In most injury claims the defendant is named but the insurer defends and pays within the policy limits.
The Real Cost of Waiting
The most expensive decision is usually the one that feels like the cautious, free one: waiting until you can “afford” a lawyer before you talk to anyone.
Nevada sets deadlines. Under NRS 11.190, an action “to recover damages for injuries to a person” generally must be brought within two years. Miss the deadline that governs your claim and a strong case can be lost on the calendar alone, no matter how good your reasons for the delay. Evidence fades on its own timeline too: records get harder to pull, and witnesses forget.
The deadline is not always two years, in either direction. When the clock starts, whether it is paused, what kind of claim you bring, and who the defendant is can all change the answer, and a few claims may be brought at any time. Under NRS 11.217, an action to recover damages for an injury arising from the sexual assault of a plaintiff who was 18 or older may be commenced against the alleged perpetrator, or a person convicted of the assault, at any time after it occurred; NRS 11.215 says the same for an injury arising from sexual abuse or sexual exploitation suffered when the plaintiff was under 18. That cuts both ways: do not assume you have plenty of time, and do not assume you have run out.
Since an injury consultation costs nothing, finding out early where you stand is the one step that stops the calendar from making the decision for you.
If Your Case Is Not an Injury Claim
If you are dealing with a general dispute rather than an injury, the cost picture is the one you probably had in mind, and the contingency answer above mostly does not apply.
For a general civil lawsuit in Clark County, expect three kinds of cost:
- The court filing fee. Opening a general civil case in Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District Court (Clark County) is listed at $270 to file the complaint on the court’s own filing-fee schedule, with an additional $30 for each extra plaintiff. The defendant pays a separate fee to respond. Court fees change, so check the current schedule for your case category before you budget. If you cannot pay the costs of prosecuting or defending the action, NRS 12.015 lets you apply on a court form to proceed as an indigent litigant, or show the court that you are the client of a legal aid program; if the court grants that application, it must allow you to commence or defend the action without those costs, and if you later prevail the court orders the losing party to pay the costs you would otherwise have incurred.
- Everything after filing. The filing fee is the first cost, not the whole bill. Depending on the case, budget separately for service of process, electronic-filing charges, motion practice, discovery, depositions and transcripts, expert witnesses, records, interpreters, a jury demand, trial, any appeal, and enforcing a judgment once you have one. Not every case incurs every item, but these routinely add up to far more than the filing fee.
- Attorney fees. Outside of injury work, hourly billing and retainers are common, but they are not the only options. Flat fees, contingency, hybrid arrangements, statutory fee-shifting, and limited-scope representation all exist, and which fits depends on the claim type and the expected recovery. Employment, consumer, and civil-rights matters in particular are often handled on something other than an hourly basis. For a smaller money dispute, small claims court is a lower-cost path with its own, smaller filing fee.
The takeaway is simple: for a general dispute, budget for filing plus the litigation costs above plus whatever fee arrangement you agree to. For an injury claim, budget for none of it up front. Sorting which one you have is the first and most important cost question. If yours is the injury side, the next question is usually what a Las Vegas personal injury case actually involves from the first call to resolution.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do You Need Money to Sue Someone?
For a personal injury claim, generally no. Injury claims are commonly handled on contingency, so there is no retainer and no hourly bill to start, and firms typically advance the case costs. A lawyer may advance court costs and litigation expenses with repayment tied to the outcome, but confirm what this firm advances and what you would owe if there is no recovery. For a general, non-injury lawsuit, you typically need to cover a court filing fee (currently $270 for a civil complaint in Clark County) and, in most cases, hourly attorney fees, though NRS 12.015 lets a person who cannot pay the costs of the action apply to proceed as an indigent litigant.
Is a Free Consultation Really Free?
Yes. A personal injury consultation is genuinely free and carries no obligation to hire the firm or file anything. You can use it to find out whether you have a case, what it might involve, and what any fee agreement would say, without paying for the lawyer’s time.
What Percentage Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Take?
For most injury claims Nevada leaves the percentage to your written agreement, and Rule 1.5(c)(1) requires the method of calculating the fee, including the percentages that apply on settlement, trial or appeal, to appear in it. Percentages and stage-based tiers vary by firm and case type, so ask for the exact figure at each stage. One statutory exception applies: under NRS 7.095, a contingency fee in an action for injury or death against a health-care provider based on professional negligence may not exceed 35 percent of the amount recovered. That cap does not reach an ordinary crash or premises claim. How tiered structures generally work is covered in how car accident lawyer fees work.
What If I Can’t Afford the Case Costs?
In a contingency arrangement, the firm advances case costs as the case goes, so you are not paying them out of pocket along the way. They are repaid from the recovery at the end. Whether you owe those costs if the case does not recover is set by your written agreement, which Rule 1.5(c) requires to state that term in boldface type, so ask about it before you sign.
Can I Be Made to Pay the Other Side If I Lose?
Costs can be awarded to a prevailing party as the law provides, and fee-shifting arises in some situations, so this is a question to ask about your own agreement. Nevada Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5(c)(4) requires your contingency agreement to state that, in the event of a loss, you may be liable for the opposing party’s attorney fees and will be liable for the opposing party’s costs as required by law. Ask how your agreement handles it; a firm should walk you through that exposure before you commit.
How Much Does It Cost to File a Lawsuit in Clark County?
The Eighth Judicial District Court (Clark County) lists $270 to file a general civil complaint, with $30 for each additional plaintiff, on its published fee schedule. Court fees change, so verify the current schedule for your case category. That is the court’s fee only: service, discovery, depositions, experts, trial and any appeal are separate, as are attorney fees. Injury cases handled on contingency do not require you to pay this fee up front; the firm advances it.
Is It Too Late to Sue?
For many Nevada injury claims the period is two years from the injury, but accrual, tolling, the type of claim and who the defendant is can all move that date, and a few claims may be brought at any time, such as an action against the alleged perpetrator, or a person convicted, for an injury arising from sexual assault, or from sexual abuse or sexual exploitation suffered as a child (NRS 11.217, NRS 11.215). Because evidence fades over time, the safest step is a free consultation to confirm exactly how much time you have, rather than assuming you have run out or that you have plenty left.
If You Were Injured in Las Vegas
If you were hurt in an accident and are holding back because you are not sure you can afford a lawyer, that is the misunderstanding this page exists to clear up. With 40+ years of personal injury experience and more than $500 million recovered in verdicts and settlements, Jack Bernstein handles injury cases on contingency: no attorney fee unless the case recovers for you, and a free consultation to find out where you stand. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict future cases. Because the filing deadline runs whether or not you have acted, the time to ask is now, not once the bills are sorted out. Call (702) 633-3333 for a free consultation.