When your case is "too small" for a big firm

"Too small" is not an insult, and it is not a ruling on your injury. It is a firm telling you that its numbers don't work for a case like yours.

Whether a case is "small" has almost nothing to do with how badly you were hurt. It has to do with what it costs to work the case to the end, and how that cost compares to what the claim is realistically likely to produce. This page explains that math. For the other reasons firms decline, see why personal injury firms turn down cases.

What a firm spends on a case

A personal injury firm carries the case financially from start to finish. It pays for medical records, expert review, court filing, depositions, accident reconstruction, and staff time, and it does not get any of that back unless the case resolves in your favor.

We work on a contingency fee, meaning no attorney's fee unless we recover for you. Clients remain responsible for case costs advanced, including if there is no recovery.

Because the firm is paid a share of the recovery and only if there is one, every case has to carry its own cost plus a margin. When a firm expects the cost of doing the work to eat most of what the claim would produce, it passes. That is the whole of "too small."

Why big firms have a higher bar

A large firm has more fixed cost to cover: a bigger staff, a marketing budget, office space, and case advances spread across hundreds of files. To keep that running, it screens for cases above a certain expected size and routes the rest away, often to a referral network.

A solo or small practice has less to feed. The same case that loses money at a firm with a hundred employees can make sense at a firm with three. The case did not change. The cost structure looking at it did.

What makes a case expensive to run

Cost is not fixed. These push it up:

• Disputed fault, which means more investigation and expert work.
• An injury that needs medical experts to explain.
• Multiple defendants or insurers, each with its own lawyers.
• A defendant that litigates hard as a matter of policy.
• A case that has to be tried rather than settled.

A claim with clear fault, a clean treatment record, and one cooperative insurer is cheaper to resolve, which changes the math in your favor even if the injury is modest.

If you have been told your case is too small

• Confirm your filing deadline with a lawyer. It does not shrink because the claim is small.
• Ask more than one firm. Thresholds differ, and smaller practices set theirs lower.
• Ask whether the firm will refer you rather than just decline. A referral is a faster route to a firm that takes cases your size.
• Consider whether you need a lawyer at all for a minor claim — do you actually need a lawyer?

Common questions

What does "too small" actually mean?

It means the firm expects the cost of working the case to be too high next to what the claim is likely to produce. It is a statement about the firm's cost structure, not about whether you were hurt or whether someone was at fault.

Why can a small firm take a case a big firm rejected?

Lower overhead. A large firm with many staff, heavy advertising, and high fixed costs needs each case to clear a higher bar before it pays for itself. A leaner practice can work a case that would lose money at the larger firm.

Does a small claim have a shorter deadline?

No. The filing deadline is the same regardless of how large the claim is. Most California injury claims must be filed within two years (Code Civ. Proc., § 335.1), and claims against a government entity are on a much shorter track. Confirm your date with a lawyer.

Can I handle a small claim myself?

Sometimes. If the injury is minor and mostly resolved and the property damage is straightforward, some people handle the claim without a lawyer. Whether that is a good idea depends on the facts — see "Do you actually need a lawyer?"