Sorted by Commenter - Ethics - State of California

agreed hourly or by an
whether the charges or a civil claim will be filed.
is an actual case, the lawyer
arrangement for further specified
obviously in the best interest of the client who has paid a nonrefundable retainer or true
retainer or minimum fixed fee earned when received and who receives both
and legal services for that payment.
14 was
In fact, just such a minimum fee agreement
State Bar in an October 24, 2008 ethics opinion. The Model Fee
that . The
Lawyers are not required to use these model fee provisions. This Model Fee Agreement
does not mention the dreaded N word (nonrefundable) and disposes of the
linguistic analysis applied by some members of the Commission.
Exception (e)(2) - "Flat Fee
Paragraph (e)(2) (see Exh. 2) is s attempts to
assuage their
14 " Minimum Fee
As a , Client agrees to pay
to Lawyer. The s services; to
insure that Lawyer will not represent anyone else relative to Client's legal matter without
Client' s consent; and for legal work to be performed for Client.
Client understands and specifically
the minimum fee will be earned by Lawyer immediately upon payment and
will be deposited in Lawyer s business account rather than a client trust account;
Lawyer will provide legal
appropriate basis) according to the schedule attached to this agreement until the value of
those services is equivalent to the , Client will be billed for the
legal work performed by Lawyer and his/her staff on an hourly basis (or other appropriate
basis) according to the schedule attached to this agreement; and
when Lawyer s representation ends, Client will not be entitled to a refund
of any portion of the minimum fee, even if the representation
provided , unless
demonstrated that the minimum fee is clearly excessive fee under the circumstances.
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