Carl Nagle began his legal career working as a defense lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia. Before law school, he was a claims adjuster for a large national insurance carrier. According to Mr. Nagle, “I was trained to oppose valid claims, and to minimize injury claim payments to collision victims who suffered real and lasting injuries”.
After working for years as an insurance company lawyer, Carl relocated his family to North Carolina and began working solely for accident victims. The law firm originated in Winston Salem, and then a second office was opened in Hickory. Over the first years of the firm’s existence, the decision was made to reject all other types of personal injury cases. According to Nagle, “Our goal was to be the best car accident lawyers for every one of our clients”. By focusing purely on motor vehicle accident cases, Nagle and his team were able to master all of the laws pertaining to collision-related injury cases, including traffic laws, federal motor carrier safety laws, trucking laws, evidence law, and the law of damages.
Nagle & Associates, P.A. emerged as an NC law firm that handled serious injury cases arising from high-force collisions. Because they worked on high-damage cases that produced large settlements and verdicts, Mr. Nagle elected to reduce the firm’s legal fee to 25% of the settlement, and 33.3% of any amount collected through litigation and trial. Other firms throughout the country typically charge 33.3% of settlement and 40-44% of any trial verdict. Carl Nagle felt that the reduced fee percentage was sufficient for the firm, and decided to leave a larger share for the firm’s clients.
The trend throughout the country has been to hold the line at the 1/3 or 33.3% fee, with some firms increasing their contingency fee in injury cases to 38%. It is therefore noteworthy that one firm has gone the other way, seeking to handle complex personal injury cases for their clients with a reduced legal fee.
