Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Massachusetts

This sounds like you agreed to a contingency fee agreement. The agreement must be in writing and must outline the scope of the representation and all of the fees associated with your case. The client doesn't pay anything unless the attorney is successful. The attorney is then compensated from the case. However, if you discharge your attorney before the end of the case the attorney is entitled to compensation for the amount of work he/she did on the case. In order to give you a more thorough answer I would need to know what type of case this is. A workman's comp case or SSI case is awarded through the statute and there is no contingency fee agreement. The attorney cannot take a contingency fee on a divorce matter, but can take it if he's representing the client to recover unpaid child support.

A contingent fee arrangement is fairly common. As the previous attorney stated, a contingency fee arrangement means that the attorney's fee is calculated as a percentage of the total recovery received by the client. Contingent fees are not appropriate in all types of cases, and the fee arrangement arrived at must be agreeable to both the client and the attorney.