How we are paid, and why it has to be a flat fee
Anyone who sends you to a lawyer is being paid by somebody. The only questions worth asking are who pays, how much, and whether the amount moves when your case moves. Here are all three answers, in the same detail a participating law firm gets them.
Participating law firms pay a flat fee. You pay nothing.
- The fee is set in advance and 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.
- It is owed whether or not your case recovers a dollar, and whether or not a firm takes your case at all.
- You are never charged, and your settlement is never touched. No part of any attorney fee or recovery is shared with this service.
- A participating firm also may not bill you for it. The Comment to Rule 4-7.22 states that a lawyer participating with a qualifying provider “may not pass on to the client the lawyer’s costs of doing business with the qualifying provider.”
What the rule prohibits, in its own words
This is not a company promise dressed up as a principle. A Florida lawyer is flatly prohibited from participating with a matching service whose compensation is a cut of the fee, which means a service built on a percentage could not sign a single Florida firm.
Rule 4-7.22(d) lists the conditions a qualifying provider must meet before any lawyer may participate with it. The second one is that the provider:
receives no fee or charge that is a division or sharing of fees, unless the qualifying provider is The Florida Bar Lawyer Referral Service or a lawyer referral service approved by The Florida Bar pursuant to chapter 8 of these rules
Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-7.22(d)(2)
SwitchMyAttorney is neither of those exceptions and claims neither. The Comment to the same rule says what a division of fees looks like in practice, and it is specific:
A fee calculated as a percentage of the fee received by a lawyer, or based on the success or perceived value of the case, would be an improper division of fees.
Comment to Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-7.22
Behind that sits the rule that governs every Florida lawyer regardless of advertising: “A lawyer or law firm shall not share legal fees with a nonlawyer” — Rule 4-5.4(a), with exceptions for things like a deceased lawyer’s estate and employee bonuses, none of which is a referral payment.
What is permitted is stated just as plainly. A lawyer “may pay the usual charges of a lawyer referral service, lawyer directory, qualifying provider or other legal service organization” — Rule 4-7.17(b). A flat charge for participation is a usual charge. A share of the fee is not.
What the fee is
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Who pays | The participating law firm. Never the client, at any point, for anything. |
| Structure | Flat fee. Whether that is billed monthly, per qualified request, or both is pending ethics review. |
| Amount | Set before the first firm signs, and published here. |
| When it is set | In advance, in the participation agreement, for the term. |
| When it is owed | Regardless of the outcome of any matter, regardless of whether the firm accepts the matter, regardless of whether any recovery occurs. |
| What it is never | A percentage of any fee. Calculated on any recovery. Contingent on any outcome. Based on the success or perceived value of any case. Higher for a case that looks larger. |
| Changes | By written amendment, going forward only, never applied back to matters already matched. |
One consequence is worth stating out loud: a case that settles for a great deal of money earns this service exactly the same amount as a case that recovers nothing. There is no version of your case that is worth more to us than another.
Why this matters to you and not only to the Bar
A fee that rises with your recovery would give a marketing company a financial interest in your settlement. That interest would have no duty attached to it — no duty of loyalty, no duty of confidentiality, no obligation to put your interests first — because the company holding it is not your lawyer and never will be. The rule removes the interest instead of trying to police it.
Three practical effects:
- No case is steered toward a firm that pays more. Nobody pays more. A participating firm cannot buy priority, and there is nothing to buy priority with.
- Nobody here has a reason to talk you out of staying put. A flat fee is the same whether you hire a new firm or decide the one you have is doing fine. This site has a page arguing against switching for exactly that reason — when switching lawyers is the wrong move.
- Your bill from the new firm does not grow because of us. The firm’s fee is set by the firm’s own fee agreement with you, under Rule 4-1.5, and the Comment to Rule 4-7.22 prohibits passing the cost of participating on to the client.
What we are not paid for, and will not be
The fee structure is only half of it. The other half is the money a referral business is usually tempted by, and the rule closes that door too. A lawyer may participate only with a provider that:
does not directly or indirectly require the lawyer to refer, match or otherwise connect prospective clients to any other person or entity for other services or does not place any economic pressure or incentive on the lawyer to make such referrals, matches or other connections
Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-7.22(d)(4)
So, concretely:
- No money from medical providers. No clinic, imaging center, surgical center or chiropractor pays anything to be in front of you or in front of a participating firm, and none holds any interest in this service.
- No money from litigation funding or settlement advance companies.
- No money from anyone else a case passes through — record retrieval, expert services, lien resolution, adjusters, investigators.
- No participation term that depends on sending clients anywhere. No pricing tier, lead allocation or placement changes because a firm did or did not use some other vendor.
The Comment to Rule 4-7.22 also makes clear that a provider which “directs, regulates, or influences the lawyer’s professional judgment in rendering legal services to the client” is itself taking an improper division of fees, and gives examples: placing limits on the representation, requiring or prohibiting particular legal services or tasks, or requiring the use of particular forms or particular third-party providers. None of that happens here. What a firm does with your case after you hire it is between you and that firm.
What a participating firm signs
A firm does not take any of this on trust either. Before participation begins, each firm receives written documentation that the provider complies with Rule 4-7.22, because Rule 4-7.22(d)(6) requires a qualifying provider to give the participating lawyer exactly that. The documentation certifies that no part of the compensation is a division or sharing of legal fees within the meaning of Rule 4-7.22(d)(2) or Rule 4-5.4(a), and that the compensation does not vary with the outcome, the value, or the perceived value of any matter.
It also carries the one clause the Bar’s own Comment tells a lawyer to insist on: that the firm may terminate immediately if the provider does not comply with the rule. The firm-facing version of all of this, including what a firm must file with the Bar itself, is at participating with SwitchMyAttorney.
Still open, and it would be dishonest to leave it out: the exact flat-fee structure is under review by a Florida ethics attorney before the first firm signs. The question being put in writing is whether a flat fee charged per retained client, as opposed to a flat monthly fee or a flat fee per request delivered, risks being characterized as a fee “based on the success or perceived value of the case” under the Comment. The conservative structures avoid the question, and the conservative structure is the default until counsel says otherwise.
Tell us what is happening and it goes to a participating firm that handles Florida injury cases where you are — there is no cost to you, and your current firm is not contacted.
Tell us about your case
Common questions
Does using this service cost me anything?
No. Not a fee, not a deduction from a recovery, not a charge added to anything a law firm bills you. Participating firms pay a flat amount that does not depend on any outcome, and the Comment to Rule 4-7.22 prohibits a participating firm from passing its cost of participating on to you.
Do you take part of my settlement?
No, and it would be prohibited. A qualifying provider may receive “no fee or charge that is a division or sharing of fees” — Rule 4-7.22(d)(2) — and no Florida lawyer may share legal fees with a nonlawyer under Rule 4-5.4(a). A percentage of your recovery or of the attorney’s fee would be both.
Is my case worth more to you if it settles for more?
No. The fee is identical on a case that recovers nothing and a case that recovers a large sum. That is the point of a flat fee: there is no financial reason for anyone here to prefer one case, one firm, or one outcome over another.
Do law firms pay more to be listed first?
No. There is no paid placement, no priority tier and no bidding. Every participating firm pays the same flat terms, and what happens is the same for every one of them: what you send goes to a participating firm that handles your kind of case where you are, and you are told that office’s city, town or county at the time the connection is made — Rule 4-7.22(d)(10) requires that the office city, town or county be disclosed at the time of the match.
Who else pays you?
Nobody. No medical provider, imaging center, funding company, expert service or other vendor pays anything, and none holds an interest in this service. A provider that pressured or paid a lawyer to send clients elsewhere would put every participating firm out of compliance under Rule 4-7.22(d)(4).
Where the answer comes from
- No division or sharing of fees: Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-7.22(d)(2), and the Comment to Rule 4-7.22 on what a percentage or success-based fee would be.
- The general prohibition behind it: R. 4-5.4(a) — a lawyer or law firm shall not share legal fees with a nonlawyer.
- What a lawyer may lawfully pay: R. 4-7.17(b) — the usual charges of a lawyer referral service, lawyer directory or qualifying provider.
- No cost passed to the client, and no interference with judgment: Comment to R. 4-7.22, citing R. 4-1.5(a) and R. 4-1.7(a)(2).
- No obligation or incentive to refer clients elsewhere: R. 4-7.22(d)(4).
- Documentation of compliance to each firm: R. 4-7.22(d)(6).
- Office disclosure at the time of the match: R. 4-7.22(d)(10).
- The firm’s own fee agreement with you: R. 4-1.5, including the contingent-fee requirements of R. 4-1.5(f).
- Rule text quoted from Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, chapter 4, RRTFB October 22, 2026 edition. Rule 4-7.22 was last amended June 22, 2023, effective August 21, 2023 (SC22-1294).
Tell us what is happening in your case and it goes to a participating firm near you that handles it. No cost to you, and nothing is sent to your current firm.
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.