Something is wrong with how your injury case is handled. You can switch attorneys.
You can switch attorneys in Florida at any time, and one fee does not become two. What leaving costs is a real question — and every answer here carries the rule or the decision it rests on.
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How this works
- Tell us what is happening in your case — the stage it is at, what you have signed, and what you want to change. Nothing is sent to your current firm.
- What you told us goes to a participating firm that handles that kind of case where you are. You are told the city or county of that firm’s office at the time the connection is made — Rule 4-7.22(d)(10).
- Talk to the firm you choose. Bring the fee agreement, the Statement of Client's Rights you signed, and anything the current firm has sent you. That conversation is where your contract actually gets read.
- Nothing happens to your current representation until you decide it does. Talking to another attorney is a consultation, not a termination.
Tell us what is happening and it goes to a participating firm that handles Florida injury cases where you are — no obligation, no cost to you, and nothing is sent to your current firm.
Tell us about your caseVideo reviews
Real experiences of people who changed attorneys in Florida, told in their own words and used with permission.
The people on screen are actors. The clients whose stories these are asked us not to show their faces, and we agreed.
Every case is different. A prospective client may not obtain the same or similar results — R. 4-7.13(b)(9)(F).
The calls are not returned. The attorney whose name is on the building has never spoken to you. Or a number came back that felt wrong and nobody explained how it was reached. You have thought about leaving, and then stopped — because nobody has told you what leaving costs.
Three things Florida law has already settled
- You may change lawyers. The Florida Supreme Court approved "the philosophy that there is an overriding need to allow clients freedom to substitute attorneys without economic penalty" — Rosenberg v. Levin, 409 So. 2d 1016, 1021 (Fla. 1982).
- Your total fee is not supposed to double. A lawyer you discharge without cause recovers the reasonable value of the work already done, and "recovery is limited to the maximum fee set in the contract entered into for those services" — Rosenberg, at 1017.
- If the case recovers nothing, the old firm is paid nothing. In a contingency case the claim arises only if the contingency happens: "If the client fails in his recovery, the discharged attorney will similarly fail and recover nothing" — Rosenberg, at 1022.
What no page can tell you is what will happen in your case. SwitchMyAttorney is a lawyer matching service, not a law firm. The firm you talk to next is the one that reads your actual contract.
Start with the question you came here with
The decision
- Can you change attorneys in the middle of a Florida injury case?The right itself, and where it comes from.
- When switching lawyers is the wrong moveIncluding the cases where silence is normal.
- A second opinion, or a new lawyer?Two different things, and asking for one is not firing anyone.
The money
- If you change lawyers, do you pay two attorney fees?The cap, the cases, and the arithmetic.
- How two firms divide the fee on one caseThe 75/25 rule — and why it does not apply to a firm you fired.
- What an attorney's lien can actually reachThe recovery in your case, and nothing else of yours.
- Case costs are not the attorney feeThe part that surprises people at the end.
The mechanics and the timing
- How to change injury lawyers, step by stepWhat happens, in what order, and who tells whom.
- Your lawyer is not returning your callsWhat the communication rule actually requires.
- When is it too late to change lawyers?Before the deadline, before trial, after a signed release — three different answers.
What SwitchMyAttorney is, and what it is not
SwitchMyAttorney is a qualifying provider under Rule 4-7.22 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar — a matching service that connects a person who wants a different attorney with attorneys who have agreed to participate. That status is not a technicality. It is what sets the limits on everything here.
- Not a law firm, and not legal advice. There are no attorneys on staff here, no case is reviewed here, and nothing on this site is advice about your situation.
- No recommendation, and no ranking. Nobody here will tell you that one attorney is better than another. What you tell us goes to a participating firm that handles this kind of case where you are, and you are told the city or county of that firm’s office when the connection is made — Rule 4-7.22(d)(10).
- No guarantee of any outcome, and no settlement or verdict figures anywhere on this site.
- No endorsement by The Florida Bar. Rules are cited here because they are the law that answers the question. Citing a rule is not an approval by the Bar — Rule 4-7.22(d)(8).
- Nobody is contacted on your behalf. Your current firm is not told that you were here. An attorney reaches you only after you ask to be contacted.
Cases this covers
Participating firms handle Florida injury claims. If your case is one of these and it is already with another attorney, it is the kind of case this service was built for.
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Rideshare accidents
- Slip and fall
- Pedestrian and bicycle
- Dog bites
- Wrongful death
Find out what leaving your case would actually cost.
Read the money pageWill you pay two attorney fees if you switch?
No, not two full fees. A discharged lawyer in Florida recovers the reasonable value of the work already done, capped at the maximum fee in the contract you signed with that lawyer — and in a contingency case, only if the case recovers money at all. One fee is divided. It does not double.
See what a lien can and cannot touch.
Read about liensCan your first lawyer put a lien on your settlement?
A charging lien is real, and it is narrower than it sounds. It attaches to the recovery in the case the lawyer worked on, not to your house, your wages or your bank account, and it has to be perfected in time. What it cannot reach is the part most people are afraid of.
See the arithmetic, worked through.
Read how the split worksHow do two law firms split one fee?
Between themselves, out of the single fee in your contract, and you approve a closing statement at the end that itemizes what each firm received. The split is the firms’ problem. The arithmetic that matters to you is that it comes out of one fee.
How we are paid, in one paragraph
Participating law firms pay a flat fee, set in advance. It does not change with the outcome of any case, it is not a percentage of any attorney fee, and it is not calculated on any recovery — Rule 4-7.22(d)(2) and Rule 4-5.4(a) both prohibit that, and it is the single most important line in this business. You are never charged anything. The whole fee structure is set out at how we get paid, in the same detail a participating firm receives it.
Common questions
Can you change attorneys in the middle of a Florida injury case?
Yes. The right does not depend on your lawyer agreeing, and it does not require you to prove the lawyer did anything wrong. What changes depending on the circumstances is what the first lawyer can recover afterward, not whether you may leave. The whole answer, with the opinion it comes from, is at can you change attorneys.
Will I pay two attorney fees if I switch?
Not two full fees. A discharged lawyer recovers the reasonable value of the work already done, capped at the maximum fee in the contract you signed with that lawyer, and in a contingency case only if the case recovers money — Rosenberg v. Levin, 409 So. 2d 1016, 1017, 1022 (Fla. 1982). The arithmetic, worked through.
Does this cost me anything?
No. Participating firms pay a flat fee that does not depend on any outcome. Nothing is charged to you at any point, and no part of any attorney fee or any recovery is shared with SwitchMyAttorney.
Will my current firm find out that I looked?
Not from us. Your current firm is not contacted, and no participating attorney contacts you unless you ask to be contacted. That is deliberate: a lawyer may not send a written solicitation to someone the lawyer knows is already represented in the matter — Rule 4-7.18(b)(1)(B) — which describes nearly everyone this service exists to help. Every conversation starts with you.
Do you recommend a particular attorney?
No, and that is a rule rather than a preference. A qualifying provider may not communicate in a way that leads you to conclude it is a law firm or provides legal services — Rule 4-7.22(d)(11). What happens instead is mechanical: what you send goes to a participating firm that handles that kind of case where you are, and you are told where that office is. Nothing here is dressed up as a verdict on who is better.
Tell us what is happening in your case and it goes to a participating firm near you that handles it. Your current firm is not contacted, and there is no cost to you.
Tell us about your case or call 1-866-568-4913SwitchMyAttorney is a lawyer matching service, not a law firm. We do not provide legal advice and we do not guarantee any outcome. Information here is general and may not apply to your situation.