Kentucky writes an exact fee schedule for work injuries and nothing at all for car wrecks. This page separates the two: what SCR 3.130(1.5) demands of a written agreement, what the Jefferson Circuit Court clerk collects, and the two dollar figures in the no-fault statute that shape a claim here before any fee question arises.
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Six boxes, about thirty seconds. You pick when to be called back, and that is when the phone rings.
Or call (502) 268-4918Kentucky's rule forbids an unreasonable fee and an unreasonable amount for expenses, then lists eight factors. It states no percentage for injury work.
Paid to the circuit clerk when the case is filed, with a $20 court technology fee and other required charges on top.
Kentucky's one tiered fee schedule: a fifth of the first $25,000, 15 percent of the next $25,000, a tenth of the rest, and never more than this.
The statutory maximum for all economic loss to one injured person from one crash, no matter how many carriers owe the benefit.
These are the ceilings the Kentucky rules put on a fee taken out of a recovery, not what any particular firm charges. A fee is set in a written agreement signed with the firm, and a ceiling is a limit rather than a going rate.
| What it covers | What Kentucky sets | What that means | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of a collision recovery | No fixed ceiling | The test is reasonableness across eight listed factors, including local custom, the result obtained and whether the fee is fixed or contingent. | Ky. SCR 3.130(1.5)(a) |
| Written agreement and expense warning | Signed by the client | It must state percentages, list expenses deducted, say whether they come off first, and warn plainly about expenses owed even after a loss. | Ky. SCR 3.130(1.5)(c) |
| Matters where a result-based fee is barred | Criminal and divorce | Kentucky forbids it for a criminal defendant and in domestic cases turning on divorce, alimony or support, apart from liquidated arrearages. | Ky. SCR 3.130(1.5)(d) |
| Work injury fee schedule | 20% / 15% / 10%, capped at $18,000 | Approved by an administrative law judge, paid from the award, with the approval motion due inside 30 days of finality. | KRS 342.320(2)(a), (3) |
| Filing the lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court | $188 plus $20 | The rule adds a court technology fee and other required charges such as the court facility and library fees to the base filing fee. | Ky. CR 3.02(1), 2026 order |
| Threshold before pain and suffering is claimable | $1,000 | Medical expense benefits must pass that figure unless a fracture, permanent injury, disfigurement, loss of a body member or death is involved. | KRS 304.39-060(2)(b) |
Start with the rule the Supreme Court of Kentucky adopted. SCR 3.130(1.5)(a) forbids agreeing to, charging, or collecting a fee that is unreasonable, and applies that same word to the amount charged for expenses. Eight factors set the measure. Labor and hours weigh against the novelty and difficulty of the questions, alongside work turned away to take the case and the going local charge for similar service. The rest are the stakes against the outcome, the deadlines in play, the history between lawyer and client, reputation, skill and standing, and whether payment is fixed or rides on the result. No percentage appears. For a crash on the Watterson Expressway or a rear-end collision in the Highlands, reasonableness is the entire ceiling.
Now the contrast. KRS 342.320 governs a workers' compensation claim with arithmetic rather than judgment. The tiers run twenty percent of the first $25,000 of the award, fifteen percent of the next $25,000, and ten percent of the remainder. The maximum fee is $18,000 for contracts signed on or after July 14, 2018. No fee is paid until an administrative law judge approves it, the approval motion is due within thirty days after the claim becomes final, and the fee comes out of the employee's award or settlement proceeds. Kentucky knew how to write a cap. It chose not to write one for motor vehicle claims.
Under SCR 3.130(1.5)(c) a contingent fee agreement must be in a writing signed by the client. It has to state how the amount is determined and the percentages accruing on settlement, at trial and on appeal. It also has to state which litigation outlays get charged against the sum collected, and whether that subtraction happens ahead of the fee calculation or after. Two requirements in the Kentucky version deserve special attention. The agreement must clearly notify the client of any expenses the client will owe whether or not the client prevails. And at the conclusion of the matter, the lawyer must provide a written statement of the outcome showing the remittance and the method by which it was determined.
Paragraph (d) closes two doors. No fee may ride on the result for a criminal defendant. And none may ride on securing a divorce or on the amount of alimony, maintenance, support or property settlement, apart from liquidated sums already in arrears.
Kentucky is a choice no-fault state, and two numbers drive the early stage of a Louisville claim. Basic reparation benefits are capped at $10,000 for all economic loss to one injured person from one accident under KRS 304.39-020, regardless of how many carriers might owe them. KRS 304.39-060 then allows recovery for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience only where medical expense benefits exceed $1,000. The alternative route is a listed injury: permanent disfigurement, a bone fracture, loss of a body member, permanent injury within reasonable medical probability, permanent loss of bodily function, or death.
Those figures explain a pattern people misread as delay. Treatment gets paid from the reparation benefit, the $10,000 runs out faster than anyone expects on an emergency room visit plus imaging plus therapy, and the liability claim then has to carry both the remaining bills and the human loss.
Filing suit in Jefferson Circuit Court costs $188 under CR 3.02(1) as amended for 2026, plus a $20 court technology fee and other required charges, including the court facility fee and library fee, collected by the circuit clerk. Those are costs of the case, not a fee. Depositions, medical records, records custodians, a mediator, an accident reconstruction opinion in a disputed intersection case, and trial exhibits are all case expenses too, and the written agreement decides who advances them and when.
What percentage applies if the claim resolves before suit, and what changes it after suit is filed. Whether expenses come off the top or after the fee is figured. Whether the expense obligation survives a defense verdict, since the rule requires that warning anyway. Whether a compensation claim is running in parallel, because the $18,000 statutory ceiling governs that half and nothing governs the other half. And whether the closing written statement will arrive with the settlement check, because the rule already entitles the client to it.
Preserve the report, the policy, the medical record, and the photographs before the claim becomes a stack of disconnected paperwork. A Louisville car-accident review should begin with what can be documented now and with the Kentucky coverage election that applied on the crash date.
Call (502) 268-4918No obligation · Written for Louisville · Jefferson County