Have you ever seen those TV commercials advertising attorney services on a contingency basis? More often than not, these are trial attorneys who specialize in personal injury cases. They market by claiming you will not pay unless you win your case. Wouldn’t it be nice if all of life worked that way?
Personal injury attorneys can take cases on a contingency basis because they know their business well enough to estimate their chances of winning before they go to trial. They won’t take a case they don’t think they can win.
Likewise for debt collectors who work on contingency. Salt Lake City’s Judgment Collectors is one such agency. They collect on unpaid judgments with the understanding that they only get paid if they succeed. Imagine what life would be like if the contingency model were used across the board.
Contingency Based Car Insurance
For the record, this writer has never made a car insurance claim in nearly 40 years of driving. Not one. I wish my car insurance were contingency based. As far as I’m concerned, I shouldn’t have to keep paying premiums if I never make a claim. My premium should carry over from one year to the next. That’s fair, right?
Contingency Based Restaurants
I would love to see contingency based restaurants as well. How would they operate? They would not require you to pay if you are not completely satisfied with your meal. Now, common sense dictates why restaurants don’t run that way. The majority of customers would claim they weren’t satisfied and then skip out without paying. Still, it would be nice if restaurants offered meals on contingency. It would certainly motivate them to do their best.
Contingency Based Rent
Imagine renting an apartment and only paying for the hours you are physically inside it. With most of us being out of the house a minimum of eight hours a day, the average renter’s monthly payment would drop by 30%. How cool would that be? You would find reasons to be out of the house just to keep your rent as low as possible.
Contingency Based Performance Reviews
Not all contingencies have to be based on finances. Take the annual performance review at work. Wouldn’t it be nice if your performance review were contingent on your supervisor’s competence? And if you could prove they were incompetent, perhaps you could have all of your previous performance reviews nullified as well. That would sure shake things up.
Contingency Based Illness
What if you could only get sick contingent on your access to healthcare services? If you cannot get to a hospital for emergency treatment, you’re not allowed to have a heart attack. If you live in a rural area with no access to oncology, getting cancer is off the table. Contingency based illness would be interesting if nothing else.
Contingency Based Voting
Perhaps the ultimate in a contingency based life is having the results of every election up for grabs. The winning candidate only truly wins if they are the one you voted for. That sort of contingency would forever end all political debates because no one would ever get elected. Say goodbye to partisanship and petty bickering. So long to political power grabs and special interest manipulation.
All kidding aside, the contingency model works very well for some industries. It is especially attractive to the legal profession due to the nature of personal injury cases and judgment enforcement. But it obviously would not work in every industry, or every facet of life for that matter. Some things are just absolute. Contingencies do not apply.
