Legal Question in Business Law in California
contingency agreement
I had a contingency fee agreement with my attorney. He lost the case but sent me a bill for $1000 which was the cost of postage & scanning documents into his computer. Am I responsible to pay this even though he lost the case.
5 Answers from Attorneys
Re: contingency agreement
Read your agreement with your attorney, it should provide you with the answer for this.
My assumption is...most likely you do.
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Re: contingency agreement
Read your Retainer Agreement; probably so. It is common to have the client responsible for costs, win, lose or draw.
Re: contingency agreement
Under state law, lawyers must submit fee disputes to arbitration if the client so desires. You may want to contact the bar association of the county in question regarding attorney-client fee arbitration procedures.
Re: contingency agreement
That depends upon what your contract says.
Re: contingency agreement
The client generally pays for costs and only the legal work is free in a contingency case, but this isn't always true - it depends on what the agreement between you and the attorney says (which you should have read and s/he should have made sure you understood, before the case got underway).
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Doing business in other states We're a California LLC, but will be collecting... Asked 7/10/09, 2:40 pm in United States California Business Law