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contingency fee
noun
: a fee for services (as of a lawyer) paid upon successful completion of the services and usually calculated as a percentage of the gain realized for the client
called also contingent fee
Examples of contingency fee in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Hypothesizing a 40% contingency fee giving $44,000 to Stanley, Herdecker said $66,000 of Client 1’s money should’ve been in the account as of June 1.
—David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 13 May 2024
Using the same contingency fee calculation, Herdecker theorized that $28,000 was Stanley’s and $44,000 was Client 2’s.
—David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 13 May 2024
The rise of contingency fee cases kicked off a new wave of lobbying across the nation.
—Shalina Chatlani, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2024
Instead of paying off Teresa McAdams’ Medicare lien and placing the rest of the settlement funds in a trust account to finance the couple’s litigation against Allstate Corp., Adams wrote checks to himself and his law firm amounting to more than he was owed for his contingency fee.
—Quinlan Bentley, The Enquirer, 20 Feb. 2024
While the attorney general has occupied the field as plaintiff, private attorneys contracted by the office will be leading the pension lawsuit going forward on a contingency fee basis, with the potential to be paid with a considerable portion of funds recovered by the state.
—Joe Sonka, The Courier-Journal, 15 June 2021
They are often paid on a contingency fee basis.
—Jon D'amato, Forbes, 11 June 2021
Those conclusions came in a 2014 ruling by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that also ordered Mr. Donziger to relinquish his 6.3% contingency fee interest in the case to Chevron and forbade him from profiting from the Ecuador judgment or trying to enforce it in the U.S.
—Rebecca Davis O’Brien, WSJ, 10 May 2021
The contingency fee structure is the only way many people can afford access to legal representation for accident.
—Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN, 25 Dec. 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'contingency fee.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1905, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near contingency fee
Cite this Entry
“Contingency fee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contingency%20fee. Accessed 18 Jun. 2024.
Legal Definition
contingency fee
see fee sense 2
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