Contingency Fees Essential To Real Justice
The contingency fee arrangement, whereby attorneys agree to work for free unless paid from a financial recovery at the end of the case, is essential to real justice. Without the contingency fee trial attorney, the keys to the courthouse would be closed entirely to the vast majority of consumers and citizens, most of whom could never afford even the expenses of a lawsuit, much less the hourly rates of experienced attorneys. When big business, the health care industry, and insurance interests lobby politicians and the public for laws limiting contingency fee arrangements, remember that they are limiting regular citizens’ access to the courts. Ask any attorney in Florida and they’ll tell you, for example, that they are less likely to accept cases against government agencies for this very reason: there are already laws limiting contingency fees in such cases.