Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in Pennsylvania

Re: Legal Fee Agreement

You asked about signing a fee agreement.

It depends on the practice. In some practices there is no reason that a staff member cannot sign a "fee agreement" binding a lawyer. In other practices it would be unethical.

The question you need to ask is whether there is any potential that the lawyer could use the lack of signature to void the contract. In most cases the answer would be no. But if the case was unusual or the agreement had a particularly onerous provisions for performance then I would hope it would be signed by the responsible attorney.

In many cases, attorneys are doing the heavy lifting on the cases and leave a lot of the ministerial work to administrators. An attorney is ultimately responsible for the administrative and legal work but much work benefits from being done at the most efficient level.

Regards,

Roger