Pedestrian Accident Lawyer: Fees and Deadlines

The short version

A pedestrian accident lawyer usually works on contingency, taking roughly a third of the recovery, more if the case goes to court. But the percentage is rarely the number that decides what you keep. Four other things do, and a pedestrian's position on each of them is different from a driver's.

No-fault insurance usually reaches you, even though you were on foot. In no-fault states, Personal Injury Protection is generally written to cover pedestrians, from your own policy in some states, the policy of the car that hit you in others, and a state plan in Michigan. In most no-fault states that is the opposite of the position for motorcyclists.
A hit-and-run is common, and it is covered on your policy, not theirs. Nearly a quarter of pedestrians killed in 2024 were struck by drivers who left the scene. Uninsured motorist coverage is what pays in that case.
Crossing outside a crosswalk does not end the claim in most states, but it can in four. Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia still bar recovery for any contributory fault.
If a city bus, a crossing signal or a public road is involved, the deadline may be months, not years.

This is general information about how insurance, fault rules and attorney fees work, not legal advice. The rules vary by state and they change. Confirm anything here with a licensed attorney in your own state before acting on it.

Why a pedestrian claim is not a car claim

The federal crash data explains most of what makes these claims different, so start there.

In 2024, 7,080 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States, a 3.9 percent decrease from 7,367 in 2023, and an estimated 71,635 were injured, a 5.0 percent increase, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2024 pedestrian data, published in June 2026. Pedestrians were 18 percent of all traffic deaths but only 3 percent of the people injured, which tells you what happens when a car meets an unprotected body: comparatively few injuries, a far higher share of deaths.

The same fact sheet contains four figures that each correspond to a legal problem.

NHTSA finding, 2024	Why it matters to a claim
24 percent of pedestrians killed were struck by hit-and-run drivers	There may be no identified driver and no liability insurer to claim against
73 percent of pedestrian deaths happened away from intersections	The insurer will argue the pedestrian was crossing where they should not have been
76 percent happened in the dark	Visibility becomes the central argument about who should have seen whom
Alcohol, for the driver and/or the pedestrian, was involved in 43 percent of crashes that killed a pedestrian	Impairment on either side feeds directly into the fault apportionment

The trend is improving. The Governors Highway Safety Association's preliminary state data projects 6,732 pedestrian deaths for 2025, 7 percent below GHSA's own preliminary count for 2024 and the third consecutive annual decrease, though still above the pre-pandemic level. That is a projection from state reporting rather than a final count, and it is measured against GHSA's own baseline rather than NHTSA's, so the two sets of figures are not directly comparable.

None of this changes the core point. A pedestrian who is hit has no bumper, no airbag and, often, no identified driver. Each section below deals with one of those problems.

Whose insurance pays first (often yours)

Most people assume the driver's insurer pays for everything. In a no-fault state, that is usually wrong, and knowing why saves weeks of confusion over unpaid medical bills.

The Insurance Information Institute counts twelve no-fault states plus Puerto Rico. In those states, Personal Injury Protection pays medical bills and some lost wages regardless of fault, and the statutes generally write pedestrians in. We covered the reverse case, where motorcyclists are written out of no-fault, separately. For someone on foot the rules work in the claimant's favour, with a priority order that decides which policy pays.

State	What the statute says about pedestrians	Practical effect
New York	Insurance Law 5102(j) defines a "covered person" to include any pedestrian injured through the use or operation of an insured motor vehicle	The no-fault cover on the car that hit you pays basic economic loss up to $50,000, including lost earnings up to $2,000 a month for up to three years
Florida	Fla. Stat. 627.736(4)(e) covers the owner and resident relatives while not an occupant of a self-propelled vehicle "if the injury is caused by physical contact with a motor vehicle"	Your own PIP pays first. If you have none, the striking car's PIP can cover you if you are a Florida resident and not the owner of a vehicle that requires security
New Jersey	N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4 extends PIP to the named insured and resident family injured "as a pedestrian, caused by an automobile", and separately to pedestrians hurt by the named insured's automobile	A policyholder hit on foot claims on their own policy. A pedestrian with no policy may reach the striking car's PIP, subject to the statute's conditions
Michigan	Since the 2019 reform, MCL 500.3115 sends a non-occupant with no policy of their own, their spouse's or a resident relative's to the Michigan Assigned Claims Plan	The striking driver's insurer is no longer next in line. Check the household's policies first, then the assigned claims plan

The New York and Florida positions are quoted from the statutes. The New Jersey wording is taken from a published copy of the statute, and the Michigan position is summarised from published summaries of the 2019 amendment, because we could not retrieve the official text of either directly to verify it. Check the current text for your own state before relying on it.

In the remaining states, which use ordinary fault-based insurance, the at-fault driver's liability cover is the main source of money, but it pays at settlement, not as the bills arrive. In the meantime, medical bills go through your health insurance or through MedPay, an optional medical-payments coverage on your own auto policy that many people carry without realising it also covers them on foot. Both can take money back out of the eventual settlement through a lien or reimbursement right. That lien matters again in the fee arithmetic below.

The practical step is the same in every state: find your auto policy's declarations page, and those of anyone you live with, before you assume there is nothing to claim on. It is the same document that decides who is covered when someone else is driving your car, and it is often the fastest route to paid medical bills.

When the driver drives off

Nearly one pedestrian death in four involves a driver who left the scene. For those claimants, the liability claim against the driver may never exist.

That is what uninsured motorist coverage is for. It sits on your own auto policy and, depending on its wording, pays when the driver who hurt you is uninsured or unidentified. Standard policies commonly extend it to the policyholder and resident relatives even when they are not in a car, which is the situation a pedestrian is in. The same coverage has an underinsured version, which matters when the driver is found but carries a minimum-limits policy that a serious injury exhausts quickly.

Two details decide whether a hit-and-run claim survives.

Physical contact. Some states only allow a hit-and-run uninsured motorist claim when the unidentified vehicle actually touched you. New York's Insurance Law 3420(f)(1) requires that the injury "arose out of physical contact" between the vehicle and the insured person or the vehicle they were in. A pedestrian who is struck meets that test. A pedestrian who jumps clear of a swerving car and breaks a wrist on the kerb may not.
Reporting conditions. Policies commonly require a prompt police report and early written notice to the insurer for a hit-and-run claim. These deadlines are in the policy's conditions section, and they can be much shorter than any statute of limitations. Report the crash to the police even if you feel fine, and notify your own insurer in writing.

If you do not own a car, check whether anyone in your household does. Their uninsured motorist coverage may extend to you as a resident relative, and that is easy to overlook.

What a pedestrian accident lawyer actually charges

The arrangement is almost always contingency: no hourly rate, nothing up front, and a percentage of whatever is recovered.

The figures you will see quoted are about 33 percent if the claim settles before a lawsuit is filed, rising to 35 or 40 percent once it is litigated. We should be clear about where those numbers come from: every published figure we found for typical contingency rates traces back to a law firm's own marketing. We found no recent neutral dataset. Use the range for orientation only and get your own figure in writing.

Two rules sit above the rate, and both are verifiable.

Some states cap the fee. New Jersey's Court Rule 1:21-7 sets a descending scale for tort claims, starting at 33 and one third percent on the first $750,000, and Florida's Bar Rule 4-1.5(f) caps percentages by recovery size and by how far the case has gone. We worked through the New Jersey scale on a large recovery in our guide to motorcycle accident attorney fees, and the Florida schedule in our look at what Morgan and Morgan actually charges. Most states have no cap and rely on a general reasonableness standard.

The order of deductions matters more than the percentage. On a pedestrian claim three things come out of the settlement: the fee, case expenses such as records, experts and accident reconstruction, and any lien from a health insurer or MedPay. The retainer decides whether the fee is calculated before or after expenses come off.

Take a $120,000 settlement, $9,000 of case expenses, a one-third fee and a $15,000 health-insurance lien.

	Fee on the gross	Fee on the net
Settlement	$120,000	$120,000
Case expenses	$9,000	$9,000
Fee base	$120,000	$111,000
Attorney fee (one third)	$40,000	$37,000
Health-insurance lien	$15,000	$15,000
You receive	$56,000	$59,000

Same settlement, same headline percentage, and a $3,000 difference set by one clause. The lien is the other line to negotiate. Many health insurers accept a reduced repayment, though self-funded employer plans often insist on the full amount, and a lawyer who negotiates liens as a matter of routine can move the client's share by more than the difference between two fee percentages. Ask whether lien reduction is included in the fee or charged on top.

If you were jaywalking or outside a crosswalk

This is the question most injured pedestrians are afraid to ask, and the one the insurer will raise first. With 73 percent of pedestrian deaths happening away from intersections, it is an argument the insurer will often have material for.

The answer depends on which of three fault rules your state uses.

Rule	What happens if you were partly at fault	Where it applies
Pure comparative fault	Your damages are reduced by your share of fault, however large. Found 60 percent at fault, you still recover 40 percent	A minority of states, including California and New York
Modified comparative fault	Damages are reduced by your share, but you recover nothing once your fault reaches a threshold, usually 50 or 51 percent	Most states. Florida moved here in 2023: under Fla. Stat. 768.81(6), a party "greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover any damages"
Contributory negligence	Any fault at all, even 1 percent, can bar recovery completely	Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia

Two recent details matter specifically to pedestrians.

Washington, D.C. carved pedestrians out. D.C. keeps contributory negligence in general, but under D.C. Code 50-2204.52 a pedestrian's negligence does not bar recovery "unless the plaintiff's negligence is a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury and greater than the aggregated total negligence of all the defendants". In practice, a pedestrian whose fault is not greater than the drivers' combined fault is not barred. How damages are then calculated is a question for a D.C. lawyer.

Maryland has not, yet. A 2026 bill to apply comparative fault to injured pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, HB 466, was referred to interim study by the House Judiciary Committee in March 2026 and has not been enacted. For now, a Maryland pedestrian found even slightly at fault can lose the claim entirely.

Fault is also not the same as breaking a rule. Crossing mid-block does not automatically make you the cause of the crash. A driver who was speeding, distracted or driving without headlights can still carry most or all of the responsibility, and in some states doctrines such as last clear chance survive. How your state's rule applies to your facts is precisely the question a lawyer should be able to answer at the first meeting. If you are in one of the four contributory states, it is the most important question you will ask.

The deadline, and the shorter one nobody mentions

Every state has a statute of limitations for personal injury, commonly two or three years and shorter in some. Once it passes, the claim is gone however strong it was. We are not printing a table of them, because your filing deadline is the one number you should never take from an article. Ask a lawyer for it in the first conversation.

The deadline that catches pedestrians out is a different one. Pedestrian crashes can involve public bodies in ways other road crashes rarely do: a city bus, a school bus, a signal that was out, a crossing that was badly designed, a broken pavement you were forced into the road to avoid. A claim against a government body usually needs a formal notice long before the ordinary limitation period runs out.

State	Rule	Deadline
California	Government Code 911.2	Claim for injury to be presented within six months of the claim accruing
New York	General Municipal Law 50-e	Notice of claim within 90 days of the claim arising
Texas	Civil Practice and Remedies Code 101.101	Notice within six months, and city charters can require notice sooner

Ninety days passes quickly when you are in hospital. If there is any chance a public vehicle, a public employee or public infrastructure played a part, raise it on the first call and ask whether a notice needs to be filed now.

Do you actually need a lawyer?

Not always, and an honest answer helps you judge the firms that tell you otherwise.

A pedestrian with a minor injury, a quick full recovery, a clearly identified and insured driver, and medical bills already paid through PIP or MedPay can often settle directly with the insurer. The fee would take a third of a small number for work the claimant could reasonably do themselves.

The balance shifts quickly when any of the following apply: the injury is serious or lasting, fault is disputed, the driver fled or was uninsured, a public body may be involved, or you are in one of the four contributory negligence states where a single allegation of fault can end the claim. Those are also the situations where the insurer's first offer is least likely to reflect the claim's value. We set out the same test in more detail in our guide to whether you need a personal injury lawyer after a car accident. It applies to someone on foot with the adjustments above.

Questions to ask before you sign

Is your fee calculated on the gross settlement or on the net after expenses?
Does the percentage rise if a lawsuit is filed, and at exactly what point?
Does my state cap contingency fees, and does the cap apply to me?
Who pays case expenses if we lose?
Will you negotiate medical liens, and is that included in the fee?
Which fault rule does my state use, and how will crossing where I did be argued against me?
Which policies should we be claiming on: my PIP or MedPay, my uninsured motorist coverage, or a household member's?
Is any public body involved, and is there a notice deadline running now?
Who will actually handle my file day to day, and how many pedestrian cases have you taken to trial rather than settled?

A lawyer who answers the first and sixth questions confidently and specifically is showing you more than any list of case results can.

FAQ

How much does a pedestrian accident lawyer charge?
Most work on contingency, commonly quoted at about a third of the recovery before a lawsuit and 35 to 40 percent after one is filed, although those figures come from law firm marketing rather than neutral data. Some states, including New Jersey and Florida, cap the percentage by rule. Whether the fee is taken before or after expenses can matter as much as the percentage.

Does my own car insurance cover me if I was hit while walking?
Often, yes. In some no-fault states, including Florida and New Jersey, PIP covers the policyholder and resident relatives when they are hit on foot. In New York, the no-fault cover on the car that hit you pays instead. Elsewhere, MedPay and uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy may apply. Check your declarations page and those of anyone you live with.

Can I still claim if I was jaywalking?
In most states, yes, with damages reduced by your share of fault, and in modified comparative states only if your share stays below 50 or 51 percent. In Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, any contributory fault can bar the claim. D.C. has a specific exception for pedestrians.

What if the driver was never found?
Uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy, or a household member's, is the usual route. Some states require physical contact with the vehicle, and policies set their own reporting deadlines, so report to the police and notify your insurer promptly.

How long do I have to file?
It depends on the state and on who you are claiming against. The ordinary limit is commonly two or three years, but a claim involving a city, transit agency or other public body can require notice within 90 days to six months. Ask a lawyer for your exact deadline early.

Where this leaves you

The firms ranking for this search are right about one thing. After a serious pedestrian crash, an unrepresented claimant facing a liability insurer is at a disadvantage, and the severity data shows why.

What their pages leave out is what decides your outcome: which policy pays first, whether the driver who drove off is covered by your own insurance, whether your state's fault rule can wipe out the claim, whether a public-body deadline is already running, and whether the fee comes off the gross or the net. Each of those has a definite answer. You are entitled to all of them before you sign anything, and you can read more of our legal coverage before you make the call.