Fair Play, CA Personal Injury Law Firms & Lawyers

Payment for your attorney's work on your behalf is, generally, a matter of agreement between you and your attorney. Some limitations exist, but not many, and they mostly concern contingency fee arrangements (when attorney gets paid some percentage of the judgment or the settlement in the case). Flat fees are used mostly in the areas of legal practice where the amount of work on the case and the expenses are reasonably predictable; wast majority of such cases concern transactional law - negotiating and drafting contracts, obtaining licenses, immigration applications, uncontested divorces, setting up business entities and trusts, etc. Litigation cases are much harder to predict in terms of the work and expenses that will be required. The attorney you consider retaining might be reluctant to accept a flat fee because the risk is high that, on the one hand, vigorous and creative opposition or some unexpected developments in the case would increase the work and expenses on the case many times over the original estimate, or, on the other hand, the opposition might fold and settle right after the opening salvoes of the battle. In the first scenario, the attorney would end up working for free and paying for the case out of his own pocket. In the second scenario, he or she would get paid too much for little work, which is against the rules of the profession and would give you a good reason to demand a refund. If you insist on a flat fee arrangement, you should be ready to address these two scenarios and to work out solutions that would be fair and acceptable to you and your attorney (remember to put all terms in writing in the retainer agreement).