| Contingent fee agreement | Must be in writing under Georgia Rule 1.5[1] |
|---|---|
| Advancing costs | Permitted under Rule 1.8(e); repayment may depend on the outcome[2] |
| Fee disputes | State Bar of Georgia Fee Arbitration Program[3] |
A contingent fee is a lawyer's fee that depends on the outcome of the matter. Georgia's Rule 1.5 allows one except where the rule or other law prohibits it, as the rule does for criminal defense and certain domestic relations matters, and requires the agreement to be in writing. Case expenses are a separate subject in that agreement. This entry explains how fees and expenses interact in car and truck crash claims under Georgia's Rules of Professional Conduct.[1]
See also: Hiring a lawyer and understanding contingency fees
Contents
Why the order of deductions matters
The related entry on hiring a lawyer notes that the written agreement must say whether expenses are deducted before or after the contingent fee is calculated. The order changes the arithmetic. With a fee of one third, for example, and expenses deducted after the fee, the fee is one third of the gross amount. With expenses deducted first, the fee is one third of what remains, and the client receives more by one third of the expenses.[1]
Who pays costs while a case is pending
Rule 1.8(e) bars a lawyer from giving a client financial assistance in connection with pending or contemplated litigation, with two exceptions. A lawyer may advance court costs and litigation expenses, and repayment may be made contingent on the outcome. A lawyer representing a client who cannot pay those costs may pay them on the client's behalf. Whether advanced costs must be repaid if there is no recovery is therefore a term to find in the agreement, not a rule that works the same way in every case.[2]
Examples of case costs
Some costs come from outside the law firm. A federal civil action begins when a party files a complaint and pays the filing fee required by statute, which a court can waive for a party unable to pay. Discovery can include depositions, in which a witness answers questions under oath before a court reporter who prepares a word-for-word transcript. Georgia's health-records statute lets a provider charge the person requesting a patient's records for search, retrieval, certification, copying and mailing, within limits the statute sets and which may be adjusted each year for medical inflation.[4][5]
The closing statement
At the end of a contingent fee matter, Rule 1.5 requires a written statement of the outcome. If there is a recovery, the statement must show the amount paid to the client, how it was determined and the attorney fee. When the fee is divided with a lawyer outside the firm, the statement must also show each lawyer's share and how the division was determined.[1]
Fees shared between firms
Lawyers in different firms may divide a fee only if the division is proportional to the work each performs or each assumes joint responsibility by written agreement with the client, the client is told each lawyer's share and does not object to the participation of all the lawyers, and the total fee is reasonable. The rule's reasonableness factors include the time and labor required, the difficulty of the questions, the fee customarily charged locally, the results obtained and whether the fee is fixed or contingent.[1]
Disagreements about a fee
The State Bar of Georgia runs a Fee Arbitration Program for fee disputes between lawyers and clients, and between lawyers over fees earned from joint work. Rule 1.5 permits an agreement to arbitrate fee disputes, to the extent such agreements are enforceable, only with the client's informed consent in a signed writing, set out in a separate paragraph that both client and lawyer initial.[3][1]
A firm's published terms
Flanagan Law's car and truck accident pages say the firm works on a contingency fee, a percentage of the recovery agreed in writing before work starts, and that the first consultation is free. The truck page adds that court costs and case expenses are handled separately and set out in the written agreement before signing. These are the firm's statements about its own terms, not a description of other firms' agreements or a promise about any case.[6][7]
See also: Flanagan Law car accident practice
An offer of a free consultation or case evaluation concerns the first conversation with a firm. The fee and expense terms that govern the representation come from the written agreement, which is the document to read before signing.[1]
See also
References
- abcdefg "Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct: Rule 1.5, Fees". State Bar of Georgia. Official source. Checked . Source record
- ab "Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct: Rule 1.8, prohibited transactions". State Bar of Georgia. Official source. Checked . Source record
- ab "Fee Arbitration Program". State Bar of Georgia. Official source. Checked . Source record
- ^ "Civil Cases". Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Official source. Checked . Source record
- ^ "O.C.G.A. 31-33-3: costs of copying patient records". Justia. Independent source. Checked . Source record
- ^ "Flanagan Law: Atlanta car accident practice". Flanagan Law, P.C. Firm-published source. Checked . Source record
- ^ "Flanagan Law: Atlanta truck accident practice". Flanagan Law, P.C. Firm-published source. Checked . Source record