With legal fees and litigation costs soaring, small businesses unfortunately must opt to pay the high costs, or altogether forego pursuing potentially valuable claims because of the financial burden imposed. An alternative, however, does exist. Traditionally used to represent individuals who otherwise could not afford representation, use of the contingent legal fee to represent our business clients in the litigation context is becoming more prevalent.
Under a “pure” contingency fee arrangement, the lawyer/firm incurs all case expenses and receives fees exclusively as a percentage of the proceeds of the litigation. Under a “blended” contingency fee agreement, a retainer, or expense reimbursement is paid to the lawyer/firm, along with a percentage of the litigation proceeds. Under all contingency fee arrangements, however, both client and lawyer are financially invested in the litigation together.
We employ the contingency fee to represent businesses in insurance coverage disputes, contract actions, patent litigation, business torts, and creditor actions, to name a few. However, the contingency fee potentially lends itself to any action seeking damages or relief of discernible value. Under such circumstances, the contingency fee promotes the most efficient, expedient, and successful resolution of the litigation (as opposed the traditional hourly fee which correlates only with hours billed and is collected regardless of whether the litigation is ultimately beneficial to the client).
In today’s world of rising legal fees and litigation costs, the contingency fee is rapidly becoming an attractive alternative to our business clients, both small and large. For more information, contact:
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