The attorney's fee: compensation for the work
The contingency fee is the attorney's own compensation for handling the case — calculated as a percentage of the settlement or award. It's earnings, not a reimbursement, and it's what the attorney keeps for taking on the risk and the work of the case.
Case costs: real expenses the case required
Case costs are something entirely different: actual out-of-pocket expenses the case genuinely needed. This typically includes expert witness fees, court filing fees, the cost of obtaining medical records, deposition transcripts, and similar litigation expenses. These are reimbursed, not earned.
Why malpractice costs run higher
Proving a Utah medical malpractice claim typically requires expert testimony establishing both the standard of care the provider should have met and causation connecting the breach to the actual harm. That expert work involves meaningfully more expense than a typical car accident or slip-and-fall claim, where fault is often more straightforward to establish.
A prelitigation step unique to malpractice
Utah law establishes a hearing panel process for prelitigation consideration of medical liability claims. This procedural step, which a claim typically has to go through before formal litigation proceeds, can add its own cost and time to a malpractice case beyond what an ordinary personal injury claim would require.
Who fronts the money while the case is pending
Commonly, the attorney's office advances case costs as the litigation proceeds, including the added expert and prelitigation costs a malpractice claim typically carries, with reimbursement coming out of the eventual settlement or award. The specific arrangement depends entirely on the individual fee agreement.