13/12/2022
Contingency fee agreements are common in personal injury cases. Other areas of the law do not favor that type of arrangement. In fact, certain areas of the law including family law bar any type of contingency arrangement. Instead, attorneys use flat or hourly fees for their billing.
Hourly fees are ripe for disagreements, as many attorneys require a retainer to be paid upfront. The retainer represents a pool of money paid to your attorney for fees they have not yet earned. Problems arise when you terminate an attorney-client relationship before an attorney has earned their entire retainer. Although they are required to return any unearned fees, disagreements over how much work an attorney has done are common.
