California Court of Appeal

Defendants' petition for writ of mandate seeking to direct the trial court to vacate the denial of their motion for summary judgment, arising from an attorney's action against defendants to recover fees under a service contract, is granted where: 1) Business & Professions Code section 6147 encompasses contingent fee arrangements regarding litigation and transactional matters, including the fee arrangement in this case; 2) the requirements on contingency fee contracts in section 6147, like the related requirements in section 6146, apply to hybrid agreements, and to hold otherwise would gut section 6147, as it would permit attorneys to avoid the statute's requirements by requiring a noncontingent payment in addition to the contingent portion of their fee; and 3) section 6147 encompasses contingency fee contracts which, like those in this case, entitle the attorney to a relatively small percentage of the client's potential recovery.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/22/2010
• Published 11/22/2010

Judges

• MANELLA

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Margaret M. Grignon