Personal Injury Lawyer Statistics (2026)
Fees, reviews, ratings, and per-capita data from 6,682 car accident and personal injury law firms across 50 states and 1,513 cities, indexed by FindMyAccidentLawyer.
Last updated October 5, 2026. Original research by FindMyAccidentLawyer. No firm is named.
Key takeaways
- The standard personal injury contingency fee is 33⅓% to 40% of the recovery. You pay nothing unless the firm wins.
- 84.3% of firms advertise a free consultation.
- 42.5% of firms we could confirm explicitly advertise a no-win-no-fee arrangement (most of the rest still work on contingency; they just don’t state it).
- The typical firm has 76 Google reviews at a 4.9-star median rating.
- South Carolina has the most PI firms per capita (3.6 per 100,000 residents), ahead of Georgia (3.41).
- The median FMAL Score is 82 out of 100 across all 6,682 firms.
How much does a personal injury lawyer cost?
Almost all personal injury lawyers work on contingency. You pay no upfront fee, and the lawyer collects a percentage only if they win. The standard fee is 33⅓% to 40% of the recovery. It often sits around one third before a lawsuit is filed and rises toward 40% if the case goes to trial.
Among the firms where we could confirm it, 42.5% explicitly advertise a contingency or no-win-no-fee arrangement, and 84.3% advertise a free consultation. The real share working on contingency is higher; many firms simply do not state it on their site.
How many reviews and what rating does a typical firm have?
The median firm has 76 Google reviews. The average is 261, pulled up by a few very large firms. The median rating is 4.9 stars. Here is the full rating spread:
Google ratings skew high for legal and service businesses, so review count and written feedback matter more than the star number alone.
Which states have the most personal injury lawyers per capita?
Accident and PI firms per 100,000 residents (2020 Census population).
How are firms rated overall? (FMAL Score)
The FMAL Score rates each firm 0 to 100 from public review sentiment, behavioral signals, and documented results. The median is 82.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a car accident or personal injury lawyer cost?+
Most personal injury lawyers work on contingency, which means no upfront fee and payment only if they win. The standard contingency fee runs 33⅓% to 40% of the recovery, often around one third before a lawsuit is filed and closer to 40% if the case goes to trial. Across the firms we could confirm, 42.5% explicitly advertise a contingency or no-win-no-fee arrangement, and 84.3% advertise a free consultation.
How many reviews does a typical personal injury firm have?+
The median firm in our directory has 76 Google reviews, and the average is 261 (a few very large firms pull the average up). The median Google rating is 4.9 stars. Ratings skew high across the industry, so review count and written feedback tell you more than the star number alone.
Which states have the most personal injury lawyers?+
Measured per capita, South Carolina leads with about 3.6 accident or personal injury firms per 100,000 residents, followed by Georgia at 3.4 and Connecticut at 3.0. By raw count, Florida, Georgia, and California have the most firms.
Where does this data come from?+
These figures describe the 6,682 car accident and personal injury firms indexed in the FindMyAccidentLawyer directory across 50 states and 1,513 cities, compiled in 2026 from public data. They describe the firms in our directory, not every lawyer in the country. You may cite any number on this page with a link back as the source.
Methodology & sources
All statistics describe the approximately 6,682 personal injury / car accident law firms indexed in the FindMyAccidentLawyer directory as of 2026-10-05. This is NOT a census of all U.S. attorneys — it reflects the FMAL-indexed subset of firms that appear in Google Business Profile data and have been scored by the FMAL algorithm. Null values are excluded from each metric's denominator; sample sizes (n) are reported. Population figures used for per-capita calculations are 2020 U.S. Census / ACS estimates sourced from the FMAL industry-stats dataset.
The standard contingency fee for personal injury cases in the United States is typically 33⅓% (one-third) of the gross recovery, rising to 40% if the case proceeds to trial. This range is a well-established industry norm and is not derived from the FMAL dataset. Population figures for per-capita ranking: 2020 U.S. Census / ACS estimates (via industry_stats.json). Compiled 2026-10-05.
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