A contingent fee agreement is a contract between an attorney and a client in a wrongful death or personal injury case. All contingent fee agreements must be in writing.
“Contingent fee” is nothing more than the language that states: before an attorney fee is owed, the attorney must successfully resolve the case, with the client’s permission, either by settlement or if they have successfully tried a case to a verdict, and a verdict is in. If that is the case, a typical contingent fee agreement is one-third.
In a medical malpractice case, a contingent fee agreement will be as high as 40% because of the additional financial risk the attorney is taking and investing in the medical malpractice case.