Law Commons^™

Prosecuting Civil Asset Forfeiture On Contingency Fees: Looking For Profit In All The Wrong Places, Louis S. Rulli

All Faculty Scholarship

Civil asset forfeiture has strayed far from its intended purpose. Designed to give law enforcement powerful tools to combat maritime offenses and criminal enterprises, forfeiture laws are now used to prey upon innocent motorists and lawful homeowners who are never charged with crimes. Their only sins are that they are carrying legal tender while driving on busy highways or providing shelter in their homes to adult children and grandchildren who allegedly sold small amounts of low-level drugs. Civil forfeiture abuses are commonplace throughout the country with some police even armed with legal waivers for property owners to sign on the …

A Study Of The Costs Of Legal Services In Personal Injury Litigation In Ontario: Final Report, Allan C. Hutchinson

Allan C. Hutchinson

Contingency Fee Agreements (CFAs) are now a fixed feature of the Ontario litigation landscape. However, little research or study has been done on exactly how they operate in practice, whether they advance the objectives that they were intended to achieve, and whether litigants are best served by the current arrangements. In this study, I intend to make a preliminary start to that research, set out some tentative criticisms of the CFA system as it currently operates, and, where appropriate, suggest preliminary proposals for change. It should be said at the outset that my efforts to obtain real and serious data …

A Study Of The Costs Of Legal Services In Personal Injury Litigation In Ontario: Final Report, Allan C. Hutchinson

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

Contingency Fee Agreements (CFAs) are now a fixed feature of the Ontario litigation landscape. However, little research or study has been done on exactly how they operate in practice, whether they advance the objectives that they were intended to achieve, and whether litigants are best served by the current arrangements. In this study, I intend to make a preliminary start to that research, set out some tentative criticisms of the CFA system as it currently operates, and, where appropriate, suggest preliminary proposals for change.

It should be said at the outset that my efforts to obtain real and serious data …

Improving On The Contingent Fee, Kevin M. Clermont, John D. Currivan

Kevin M. Clermont

Two basic fees--contingent and hourly--dominate the variety of fees that lawyers charge clients for pursuing damage claims. Each of these two types has its advantages; each is plagued with substantial disadvantages. This Article proposes a new type of fee, one that preserves the respective advantages of the two present fees while minimizing their distinct disadvantages. In essence, the proposed fee calls for the payment, on a contingent basis, of an amount computed by adding one component tied to hours worked and another component linked to amount recovered. The preferability and feasibility of this proposed fee argue for the abolishment, or …

Notions Of Fairness And Contingent Fees , Eyal Zamir, Ilana Ritov

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Should Substitute Private Attorneys General Enforce Public Environmental Actions - Balancing The Costs And Benefits Of The Contingency Fee Environmental Special Counsel Arrangement, Julie E. Steiner

Santa Clara Law Review

No abstract provided.

Impersonating The Legislature: State Attorneys General And Parens Patriae Product Litigation, Donald G. Gifford

Donald G Gifford

The state attorney general has emerged during the past decade as a “super plaintiff” in state parens patriae litigation against manufacturers of cigarettes, automobiles, lead paint, and pharmaceuticals. Attorneys general sue on behalf of their states as the collective plaintiff, seeking reimbursement for the costs of treating or preventing product-caused diseases suffered by individual residents, even though such individual victims would not themselves be able to recover as plaintiffs. More importantly, they seek to supplant the regulatory regimes previously enacted by Congress, the state legislature, or federal agencies with one that reflects their own visions. This Article traces how state …

Neither Saints Nor Devils: A Behavioral Analysis Of Attorneys' Contingent Fees, Eyal Zamir, Ilana Ritov

Eyal Zamir

The market for legal services, and particularly lawyers’ Contingent Fee (CF) arrangements, have been extensively studied from legal, economic and sociological standpoints, but curiously not from a behavioral perspective. Building on Kahneman and Tversky’s Prospect Theory, this paper presents a series of experiments designed to reveal people’s preferences regarding attorneys’ fees and their perceived fairness.

Contrary to common economic wisdom, we demonstrate that loss aversion (rather than risk aversion or incentivizing the lawyer to win the case) plays a major role in clients’ preferences for CF. Facing a choice between a mixed “gamble” and a pure positive one, plaintiffs prefer …

Impersonating The Legislature: State Attorneys General And Parens Patriae Product Litigation, Donald G. Gifford

Faculty Scholarship

The state attorney general has emerged during the past decade as a “super plaintiff” in state parens patriae litigation against manufacturers of cigarettes, automobiles, lead paint, and pharmaceuticals. Attorneys general sue on behalf of their states as the collective plaintiff, seeking reimbursement for the costs of treating or preventing product-caused diseases suffered by individual residents, even though such individual victims would not themselves be able to recover as plaintiffs. More importantly, they seek to supplant the regulatory regimes previously enacted by Congress, the state legislature, or federal agencies with one that reflects their own visions. This Article traces how state …

Contractarian Economics And Mediation Ethics: The Case For Customizing Neutrality Through Contingent Fee Mediation, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

No abstract provided.

Return To Sharecropping: Lawyers And Clients As Tenants And Landlords In The Tax Treatment Of Contingency Fees, Dean T. Howell

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cheating Clients With The Percentage-Of-The-Gross Contigent Fee Scam, W. William Hodes

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contingent Fee Agreements & Tax Liability: An Opportunity For Change, William H. Baker

Santa Clara Law Review

No abstract provided.

Income Tax: Kenseth V. Commissioner: The Assignment Of Income Doctrine And Its Misapplication To Contingent Attorney's Fees, Aubree Helvey

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Psychological Impact Of Scrutiny On Contingent Fee Attorney Effort, Robert E. Thomas

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contingency Fee Abuses, Ethical Mandates, And The Disciplinary System: The Case Against Case-By-Case Enforcement, Lester Brickman

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legislative And Judicial Controls Of Contingency Fees In Tort Cases, Stephen D. Annand, Roberta F. Green

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Denying The Devil His Due: Contingency Fee Multipliers After City Of Burlington V. Dague, Kyle R. Kravitz

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court, 1991 Term - Leading Cases, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Contingency Factor And The Attorney's Fees Awards Act Of 1976: Legislative History Requires Continued Application, Andrew W. Stroud

Santa Clara Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Contingent Fee Contract In Domestic Relations Cases - Thompson V. Thompson, Timothy H. Graham

Campbell Law Review

This Note will sketch the background of the contingent fee in North Carolina and then examine contingent fee agreements in domestic relations actions in other jurisdictions. The Note will then examine the Thompson court's holding and look at some unanswered questions. The Note concludes that, based on the public policy of North Carolina and of the majority of other jurisdictions, the court reached the correct decision in holding that contingent fee contracts in domestic relations actions are against public policy.

Lawsuit, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Lawsuit by Stuart M. Speiser

Improving On The Contingent Fee, Kevin M. Clermont, John D. Currivan

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Two basic fees--contingent and hourly--dominate the variety of fees that lawyers charge clients for pursuing damage claims. Each of these two types has its advantages; each is plagued with substantial disadvantages. This Article proposes a new type of fee, one that preserves the respective advantages of the two present fees while minimizing their distinct disadvantages.

In essence, the proposed fee calls for the payment, on a contingent basis, of an amount computed by adding one component tied to hours worked and another component linked to amount recovered. The preferability and feasibility of this proposed fee argue for the abolishment, or …

Acquiring Interest In Litigation--The Role Of The Contingent Fee, Jerry P. Rhoads

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.