Sorted by Commenter - Ethics - State of California

minimum fee that is a
payments or an hourly
through the different steps (i.e. , including in a criminal case, pre-filing, administrative
hearings , discovery, pre-trial , trial, post-trial, and
nonrefundable retainers are often used as a partial payment in combination with fixed fee
payments or often hourly credits against the retainer.
This kind of unworkable language together with the unnecessary "Rube Goldberg
creation of section ( , bar
complaints and civil disputes , for a
ongoing or in need of any reform under the
non-specialist practitioners drafting a fee agreement in their first "big" case.
b. Paragraph (e)(2)
Paragraph (e , on the pain of discipline, to include the
enumerated language (e)(2)(i)-(v) in their fee
may be entitled to a refund of a portion of the fee, if the agreed upon legal service has
not been completed. " The section, however, provides no guidance in situations (two of
which are outlined below) that practicing attorneys are routinely confronted with:
(a) Where a lawyer may get a good result but not a complete result:
when the client fires the lawyer after the lawyer gets a good result but not a
complete result that is , in a criminal
case, a lawyer succeeds in winning a motion to suppress but the retainer is for
the entire trial.
substantially. Is the client entitled to a refund of a substantial portion of the fee
after firing the lawyer without cause? , how much?
(b) Where the case is concluded but the agreed upon legal services have not been
performed: For example, the fee
case, including a potential six week jury trial, and the lawyer wins the case in
two months after a preliminary , by filing a demurrer.
The case is then completed but the lawyer has not performed the agreed upon
legal services. Is the client , how is this
computed?
Paragraph (e )(2) also
actual nature of the fee by asserting that the fee "is the lawyer s property on receipt." See
discussion at pp. 19- 20; 29- supra. The problem is not what the fee is called but who
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