Software company morphs into personal injury firm

(Reuters) - A software company that serves personal injury practices is launching its own law firm, offering what it says is a better option to the usual plaintiffs bar fee structure.

The company, Mighty Group Inc, which works with law firms, medical lien providers and personal injury clients to manage their cases, is opening Mighty Law in Connecticut, Georgia and Texas.

Mighty lawyers must cover 10% of the client’s medical and case costs, said Mighty chief executive Josh Schwadron. In addition, Mighty lawyers caps their fees at 30% of clients' pre-litigation gross settlement or 36% if their cases go to litigation, Schwadron said.

Mighty Law also publishes its fee structure on it website, an unusual display of transparency for personal injury law firms, said Stanford Law School professor Nora Freeman Engstrom.

Mighty’s pricing strategies seem unique, said Tim McKey, owner of personal injury consultancy Vista Consulting Team, adding most firms take a 33.33% cut of settlements.

The firm launched on Friday with seven lawyers in the three states, with plans to expand. Mighty Law's lawyers will work both from its offices in those states and remotely. Mighty, which has 60 employees, will continue to operate its software side as a business supervised by the law firm.

Schwadron, 40, who has a law degree from Emory University, launched Mighty in 2015 as a platform that enabled individuals to crowdsource investors for lawsuits. It shifted to software in 2018.

Since its founding, Mighty has raised $15 million, including backing from venture capital firms IA Ventures and Tribeca Venture Partners, according to Schwadron.

Schwadron said that the personal injury bar is plagued by lawyers who have undisclosed relationships with the medical providers and funders that enable them to drive up the value of a case by driving up the medical costs.

“Lawyers will tell you that their incentives are aligned with the client,” Schwadron said. “Nothing could be further from the truth."

McKey said he's seen situations where client medical costs were inflated. And though he said the problem is not pervasive, he also said that there is room for fee innovation in the personal injury space to better serve clients.

Still, Mighty will have to overcome the name-recognition among consumers of the lawyers featured on billboards and radio ads, McKey said.

“If they're happy with the discount price, then Mighty will be successful.”

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.