Here’s the part that surprises most people. You don’t pay a manufacturer defect attorney upfront. No retainer. No hourly rate. Nothing out of pocket to get started.
Contingency fee means the attorney gets paid only if you win. The fee comes as a percentage of your recovery, and if there’s no recovery, you owe nothing for legal fees. That’s the deal.
How the Contingency Fee Actually Works
Most product liability lawyers in Greenwood Village and across Colorado charge somewhere between 33% and 40% of the final settlement or verdict. The exact percentage depends on where your case resolves. A case that settles before a lawsuit is filed usually runs lower than one that goes to trial. And a case that requires an appeal can go higher still.
We’ve seen people hesitate to call because they assume they can’t afford a lawyer. That assumption costs them money. Insurance companies count on you not knowing how this works, they’d rather negotiate directly with someone who doesn’t know what their case is actually worth.
Here’s a real scenario we see regularly. A family in the DTC area buys a household appliance that malfunctions and causes a burn injury. They call the manufacturer’s customer service line. The manufacturer offers to replace the product and maybe cover part of the medical bills. The family thinks that’s fair because they don’t know the full cost of their injury yet. Six months later, they’re still in treatment, but they’ve already signed a release. A contingency fee attorney would have cost them nothing upfront and likely recovered far more than that initial offer.
We’ve seen this play out more times than we can count.
What Costs Are Separate from the Fee
The contingency fee covers your attorney’s time and work. But product liability cases also carry real costs, separate from fees, and worth understanding before you sign anything.
Expert witnesses are almost always required in manufacturer defect cases. An engineer may need to examine the product. A medical expert may need to connect your injury to the defect. Neither works for free. Document retrieval covers medical records, manufacturing records, and safety testing data. Filing fees and deposition costs add up fast, especially when the manufacturer fights every step.
Some firms advance these costs and deduct them from your recovery at the end. Others ask you to pay as they come up. Ask about this before you sign anything. At Jordan Law, we advance case costs so our clients aren’t paying out of pocket while the case is still going.
Why This Fee Structure Matters in Product Liability
Product liability cases against manufacturers are expensive to litigate. The manufacturer has a legal team on salary and engineers on retainer. They’ve been through this before. Going up against that kind of defense takes real resources, and it takes a firm that isn’t going to flinch.
The contingency fee model puts your attorney’s money on the line too. If they don’t believe your case has merit, they won’t take it. But if they do take it, they’re investing their own time and money to win, which changes how hard they fight.
As Jason Jordan, our founding partner, puts it: “It’s very important to understand which firms actually take cases to trial, and that reputation affects every offer. A lot of the high-volume firms don’t actually try cases. Many times they end up calling firms like ours to litigate and take their cases to trial.”
That trial reputation matters in product liability more than almost anywhere else. A manufacturer deciding whether to offer a fair settlement or drag things out will look at who’s across the table. If your attorney has never tried a product liability case, the manufacturer’s team knows it. And they’ll make their offers accordingly.
So when you’re asking how much it costs to hire a manufacturer defect attorney, the real answer is this: nothing to start, and your attorney only gets paid when you do. If you’ve been hurt by a defective product in Greenwood Village, talk to a product liability lawyer who can walk you through exactly how the fee structure applies to your situation.
Attorney Fees and Case Costs Are Two Separate Buckets
This is where most people get confused. And it’s where some firms aren’t as clear as they should be.
Attorney fees are the percentage your lawyer earns for handling your case. Case costs are the actual expenses spent building it. These are two different things, they come out of your recovery differently, and you need to understand both before you sign anything.
What Attorney Fees Cover
The contingency fee pays for your lawyer’s time. Every call with the insurance adjuster. Every deposition taken. Every hour spent reviewing medical records or tracking down the manufacturer’s internal testing data. For a manufacturer defect attorney working a product liability case in Greenwood Village, that time adds up fast, these cases aren’t simple. They require technical knowledge, engineering analysis, and often months of investigation before a demand letter ever goes out.
We’ve worked product liability cases where our attorneys logged hundreds of hours before a single court filing. The contingency fee structure means you don’t pay for any of that time unless you win.
What Case Costs Actually Include
Case costs are the out-of-pocket expenses your attorney fronts to move your claim forward. Think of them as the tools needed to prove what happened. Under Colorado’s strict liability statute (C.R.S. § 13-21-401 et seq.), you’re not just arguing someone was careless, you’re proving the product itself was flawed and that the flaw caused your injury. That takes evidence, and evidence costs money.
Expert witness fees are often the biggest line item. A metallurgist, mechanical engineer, or product safety consultant might charge thousands for testing and testimony alone. Court filing fees in Arapahoe County District Court run several hundred dollars just to open a case. Deposition costs include court reporter fees, videographer charges, and transcript production. Medical record retrieval sounds simple but can involve dozens of providers and hundreds of pages. Travel expenses come into play when your attorney needs to inspect a manufacturing facility or attend hearings out of state.
Some firms deduct costs before calculating the attorney fee. Others deduct after. That difference changes your take-home number. Ask about it upfront, the answer tells you a lot.
Why This Matters for Your Case
A manufacturer defect attorney who has actually tried these cases knows which costs are worth spending and which aren’t. But here’s what most people don’t realize until it’s too late: if your attorney isn’t willing to invest real money into expert analysis and proper discovery, your case gets weaker. Corporate defense teams can spot an underfunded claim. And they’ll use it.
At Jordan Law, Anne Dieruf and our product liability team handle these cost decisions every day from our office right off DTC Parkway. We front all case costs. You owe nothing unless we recover for you. But we’re also strategic about where we spend, because every dollar in costs comes out of your recovery at the end.
So when you’re talking to any firm about a product liability case, don’t just ask “what’s your percentage?” Ask how costs work. Ask if they cap costs. Ask what happens to those costs if you lose.
If you want to understand how fees and costs would apply to your specific situation, our product liability team can walk you through it in a free consultation. No guessing required.
For a free legal consultation, call (303) 465-8733
Manufacturer Defect Cases Cost More to Litigate Than Standard Personal Injury Claims
Most people don’t realize this until they’re already deep into a case. A manufacturer defect claim isn’t like a fender bender where you’re arguing over who ran the red light. You’re going up against a company with a legal team that’s been preparing for lawsuits since the day the product shipped. That changes everything about what it takes to win.
Under Colorado’s product liability statute, C.R.S. § 13-21-401 et seq., you can hold a manufacturer strictly liable for a defective product. You don’t have to prove they were careless. You have to prove the product was defective and that defect caused your injury. Sounds cleaner than negligence. It’s still a fight.
Why the Expenses Stack Up
The biggest cost driver is expert witnesses. In a standard car accident case, you might need a doctor to testify about your injuries. In a manufacturer defect case, you need engineers, metallurgists, design specialists, sometimes toxicologists. These experts charge thousands per day for depositions and trial testimony. We’ve seen cases where expert costs alone ran into six figures before the trial date was even set.
Then there’s testing. If a product failed, your attorney’s team often needs to replicate that failure under controlled conditions. Think about a defective vehicle component that caused a crash near the Arapahoe Road interchange on I-25 (a stretch well, it sees a lot of wreck volume). Your experts might need to buy the same part, test it under similar conditions, and document the results. That requires lab time and specialized equipment, neither of which comes.
Discovery is another cost most people don’t expect. Manufacturer defect cases involve massive document requests, internal emails, design specs, quality control records, prior complaint histories. Someone has to review all of that. Sometimes it’s tens of thousands of pages. The manufacturer’s lawyers will fight every request, which means more motions, more court appearances, more hours billed on their side and yours.
How This Affects You Financially
Most product liability lawyers in Greenwood Village work on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront. The attorney advances all those expert costs, testing fees, and filing expenses. You only pay if you win or settle.
But the size of those advanced costs matters. A firm willing to spend $150,000 or more preparing your case needs to believe in it, and that’s exactly why the initial case evaluation is so important. An experienced product liability lawyer will look at whether the evidence supports that kind of investment before committing to move forward.
We’ve seen this play out hundreds of times. A family brings us a product that injured their child. The product looks obviously defective to anyone who holds it. But proving it in court against a manufacturer with a large legal budget requires building a case that holds up under serious scrutiny. That costs money. The right attorney absorbs that risk so you don’t have to.
Colorado’s 10-year statute of repose adds another layer. If the product was sold more than 10 years before your injury, your claim may be barred entirely (exceptions exist for latent defects, but investigating whether one applies takes time and research). So even the threshold question of whether you have a case can involve real attorney work.
Manufacturer defect cases cost more because they demand more. More experts. More testing. More legal firepower. But the right attorney absorbs that risk so you don’t have to. If you’re dealing with an injury from a defective product in Greenwood Village, the smart first step is a free consultation with a firm that actually tries these cases. You can learn more about how Jordan Law handles these claims on our product liability page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to pay anything upfront to hire a manufacturer defect attorney in Greenwood Village?
No — you pay nothing upfront to hire a manufacturer defect attorney. Most product liability lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. That means they only get paid if you win your case. The fee comes out of your settlement or verdict. If there’s no recovery, you owe nothing for legal fees. This matters a lot for Greenwood Village residents who may assume legal help is out of reach financially. It isn’t. The system is built so you can get real representation without writing a check on day one.
What’s the difference between attorney fees and case costs in a product liability claim?
Attorney fees and case costs are two separate things — and mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes people make. Attorney fees are the percentage your lawyer earns from your recovery. Case costs are the actual expenses spent building your case — things like expert witnesses, medical records, and filing fees. Both come out of your recovery, but they’re calculated differently. Always ask your attorney how case costs are handled before you sign a fee agreement. Some firms advance those costs for you; others don’t.
What is a common misconception about hiring a product liability attorney?
The biggest misconception is that hiring an attorney is too expensive for most people. That’s not true in product liability cases. Because attorneys work on contingency, your income or savings don’t determine whether you can get help. Another common mistake is thinking the manufacturer’s first offer is fair. It rarely is — especially if you haven’t finished medical treatment yet. Accepting an early offer and signing a release can close your case before you know the full cost of your injury. A manufacturer defect attorney can help you understand what your case is actually worth before you agree to anything.
Why does it matter whether my attorney has actually taken product liability cases to trial in Colorado?
It matters because manufacturers pay attention to who’s across the table. If your attorney has never tried a product liability case, the defense team knows it — and their settlement offers will reflect that. Colorado’s strict liability statute (C.R.S. § 13-21-401 et seq.) requires you to prove the product itself was flawed. That’s a technical, evidence-heavy argument. An attorney with real trial experience in these cases carries more weight in negotiations. If you want to learn more about how product liability claims work, our product liability attorney page walks through the full process.
How does living near the Denver Tech Center area affect a product liability claim?
Living in or near the DTC area in Greenwood Village doesn’t change your legal rights, but it does affect the practical side of your case. Many households in this area purchase higher-end appliances, electronics, and consumer products — items that often involve more complex manufacturing and more technical defect arguments. Manufacturers of these products typically have experienced legal teams ready to defend claims. That’s why having a local attorney who understands both Colorado product liability law and the types of products commonly purchased in this area can make a real difference in how your case is handled.
When should I contact a manufacturer defect attorney instead of handling things directly with the company?
Contact an attorney as soon as you’ve been injured by a product — before you accept any offer or sign anything. Handling it yourself seems reasonable at first, especially when the manufacturer offers to replace the product or cover some bills. But that offer usually comes with a release that ends your claim permanently. You may not know the full cost of your injury yet. An attorney can review what happened, assess your actual damages, and make sure you don’t settle for less than what you’re owed. There’s no cost to have that conversation.