Holmes v. Loveless

The fee a lawyer collects for legal services must be reasonable. Attorney fee agreements are subject to continued review for reasonableness over the course of the agreement. We conclude that the trial court erred in enforcing a contingent fee agreement under which a law firm received five percent of the cash distributions from a joint venture in exchange for rendering legal services at a discount. That discount was valued at $8,000 off regular rates; the cash distributions over 30 years have exceeded $380,000. Further enforcement of this agreement cannot be justified on any principled basis.…