Generally, you have three business days to reconsider a personal injury contingency fee agreement without ANY charge for fees (although you may owe the lawyer’s costs) but this must generally be done in writing; thus, if you are within three business days, then you can cancel the contract in writing without any charge from the lawyer. Indeed, under the Statement of Client’s rights, which is required to be part of the lawyer contract, the second right states:
Any contingency fee contract must be in writing and you have three (3) business days to reconsider the contract. You may cancel the contract without any reason if you notify you lawyer in writing with three (3) business days of signing the contract. If you withdraw from the contract with the first three (3) days, you do not owe the lawyer a fee, although you may be responsible for the lawyer’s actual costs during that time. But, if you lawyer begins to represent you, your lawyer may not withdraw from the case without giving you notice, delivering necessary papers to you, and allowing time to employ another lawyer. Often, your lawyer must obtain a court approval before withdrawing from a case. If you discharge your lawyer without good cause after the three (3) day period, you may have to pay a fee for the work that the lawyer has done.
If the three business days have passed, a client can still fire their lawyer, however they will owe the lawyer fees for the time the lawyer spent on the case. Obviously, if the lawyer has been working on the case for a year, that amount may be substantial; on the other hand, if the lawyer has been working on the case for a week, then that amount would likely no be very substantial.
