Sorted by Commenter - Ethics - State of California

No. Commenter Position 1
Comment
on Behalf
of Group?
Rule 1.5 Fees for Legal Services.
[Sorted by Commenter]
Rule
Paragraph
Comment RRC Response
completed.” This is a contradiction – the fee
cannot be the lawyer’s property upon receipt if
it is also potentially refundable.
The Proposed Rule would essentially bar flat
fee arrangements by placing all the risk on the
attorney – under the Proposed Rule, if the
case requires less work than anticipated at
the time of the agreement, the attorney will be
required to refund a portion of the fee, but if
the case requires more work, the attorney will
be stuck with the flat fee. Few attorneys will
enter into such an arrangement.
It is a matter of concern that the Proposed
Rule has proceeded this far toward approval
without proper notification to the Bar’s
membership. Many attorneys and
organizations opposed previous efforts to
make similar amendments to the rules
governing non-refundable fees, yet this
Proposed Rule was conditionally approved by
the Board of Governors without any
meaningful opportunity for public comment.
This procedure seems to violate the terms of
Rule of the State Bar 1.10, and in any case is
not advisable when, as here, the proposal at
issue is likely to be the subject of significant
controversy.
The Commission did not make the requested
revision, in part, because the Commission believes
that charging a non-refundable fee is inimical to
California’s strong policy of client protection. (See
also proposed Rule 1.5 Model Rule Comparison
Chart explanation of paragraph (e) of the rule.)
The proposal was issued for a 90-day public
comment period posted on the State Bar website
and was also the subject of a public hearing in
Sacramento that was noticed by several methods,
including: a posting at the State Bar website;
public notices in the Daily Journal, the Daily
Recorder, and the Sacramento Bee; e-mail
notifications to approximately 14,000 interested
persons; and a press release to the media.
RRC - 4-200 1-5 - Public Comment Chart - By Commenter - XDFT1.1 (5-26-10) doc.doc Page 21 of 28 Printed: 5/26/2010
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