Contingent fee

A contingent fee (also known as a contingency fee in the United States or a conditional fee in England and Wales) is any fee for services provided where the fee is payable only if there is a favourable result. Although such a fee may be used in many fields, it is particularly well associated with legal practice. In the law, a contingent fee is defined as a fee charged for a lawyer's services that is payable only if a lawsuit is successful or results in a favorable settlement, usually in the form of a percentage of the amount recovered on behalf of the client. Contingent fees may make it easier for people of limited means to pursue their civil rights since otherwise, to sue someone for a tort, one must first be wealthy enough to pursue such litigation in the first place. Due to the risk of loss, attorneys will not take cases on a contingency basis unless they believe that the case has merit, although accepting cases on a contingency is not without risk. Under a traditional contingency fee arrangement, a client is not charged attorney fees if he loses the case. If the client recovers damages from settlement or a favorable verdict, the attorney receives the fee from the recovery. The attorney's permitted fee varies depending on the country, and even local jurisdictions. For example, in the U.S. a contingency fee is based on the contractual agreement between the attorney and the party. The fee is calculated as a share of the eventual damage judgment or settlement obtained by the client. The percentage allowable as a contingency fee is subject to the ethical rules of professional conduct that require legal fees to be reasonable and, in some circumstances, by statutory limitations. In some jurisdictions, contingent fees as high as 33% to 45% of recovery may be deemed reasonable. Attorneys charging unreasonable fees may be subject to professional sanctions. In the alternative, the contingency may come in the form of an additional charge that is added to a negotiated attorney fee in the event of success as defined by the parties in their fee contract.