contingency fee

American  

[kuhn-tin-juhn-see fee] / kənˈtɪn dʒən si ˌfi /

noun

contingency fees plural

1. a fee paid to a lawyer only if the case is won or settled favorably, calculated as a percentage of the damages or other compensation awarded to the client.

---

contingency fee British  

noun

1. a lawyer's fee that only becomes payable if the case is successful

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• contingency fees
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

contingency fee

If a lawyer is going to charge a contingency fee, the client should be told, in plain English, what the lawyer knows about the underlying claim value.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

That is enough, they say, for them to earn a living and risk taking cases on a contingency fee basis — meaning, if they lose, they don’t get paid.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2026

The rise of contingency fee cases kicked off a new wave of lobbying across the nation.

From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2024

Robert Cohen, a longtime attorney for the bariatric practice, testified in a November 2021 hearing that the lawyers take "a contingency fee of one-third of our recovery" in these cases.

From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2023

Past examples of contingency fee arrangements show how lucrative they can be if a case is successful.

From Reuters ● Apr. 20, 2023