PLEASE NOTE: Publication for public comment is not, and shall not be, construed as a recommendation or approval by the Board of Trustees of the materials published.
Revisions to Sample Fee Agreement Forms
The State Bar’s Committee on Mandatory Fee Arbitration (“CMFA”) has developed Sample Fee Agreement (“SFA”) forms to aid attorneys in the development of their own agreements. The forms are posted on the State Bar’s website and cover (1) litigation matters on an hourly basis, (2) non-litigation matters on an hourly basis and (3) contingency matters. The committee also developed (4) Instructions and (5) Optional Clauses and Disclosure Forms that may be useful to attorneys in their representation of clients. These forms are not binding on the State Bar of California, the Board of Trustees or any persons or tribunal charged with regulatory responsibilities or any member of the State Bar of California.
The CMFA updates these forms from time to time to ensure they comport with new legislation, case law or ethical requirements. The CMFA performed a complete review of the forms and advances the attached proposed revisions.
At its December 2014 meeting, the committee finalized the proposed changes. The modifications proposed to the Sample Free Agreement forms compared to the existing forms are extensive, so they are presented as clean versions of the document.
The Instruction form has been modified to comport with the changes described in the Sample Fee Agreement forms. The newly titled Optional Clauses and Disclosure Forms includes clauses that an attorney may want to consider incorporating into a fee agreement, depending upon their situation. The committee updated the language to all of the pre-existing clauses, added several more and introduced new disclosure forms: Disclosure and Consent-Third Party Payor Payment of Attorney’s Fees and Costs and Joint/Multiple Client Disclosure and Consent.
None.
Committee on Mandatory Fee Arbitration
April 30, 2015
Mandatory Fee Arbitration The State Bar of California 180 Howard St. 6th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105-1639 Fax: (415) 538-2335 E-mail: feearb@calbar.ca.gov