Most people who hire a Philadelphia injury lawyer after a crash do not pay an hourly rate up front. They sign a contingent-fee agreement. Pennsylvania regulates that agreement, but it does not publish a single official percentage that every lawyer must charge. The rule is about fairness, writing and clarity, not about a mandatory number.
The text is Rule 1.5 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct, read on the official Rules of Professional Conduct page. This guide summarizes that rule. It is not a quote of every comment, and it is not a suggestion of what any particular office should charge.
No illegal or clearly excessive fee
Rule 1.5 begins with a prohibition. A lawyer shall not enter into an agreement for, charge, or collect an illegal or clearly excessive fee. The factors to be considered include whether the fee is fixed or contingent, the time and labor required, the novelty and difficulty of the questions, and the skill needed to do the work properly. Other factors include the chance, if the client can see it, that taking the work will shut the lawyer off from other work, the fee customarily charged in the locality for similar services, the amount involved and the results obtained, the time limits imposed by the client or the circumstances, the nature and length of the professional relationship, and the experience, reputation and ability of the lawyer or lawyers doing the work.
Those factors are the test. A percentage that is common in town can still be excessive in a simple case, and a higher percentage can still be proper in a hard one. The rule does not pick the number for you. It tells you what to weigh, and it tells the lawyer what must be justified.
The agreement has to be in writing
When the lawyer has not regularly represented the client, the basis or rate of the fee shall be communicated to the client, in writing, before or within a reasonable time after commencing the representation. A fee may be contingent on the outcome of the matter, except in a matter in which a contingent fee is prohibited. A crash claim is not one of the prohibited categories, which the rule describes as certain domestic-relations matters and representing a defendant in a criminal case.
A contingent-fee agreement shall be in writing and shall state the method by which the fee is to be determined, including the percentage or percentages that shall accrue to the lawyer in the event of settlement, trial or appeal, litigation and other expenses to be deducted from the recovery, and whether such expenses are to be deducted before or after the contingent fee is calculated. That last clause is the one people skip and later regret. Costs taken out before the percentage is calculated leave a different net than costs taken out after.
Upon conclusion of a contingent-fee matter, the lawyer shall provide the client with a written statement stating the outcome of the matter and, if there is a recovery, showing the remittance to the client and the method of its determination. You should expect that closing statement, and you should be able to follow the math from the gross recovery down to what you are paid.
Questions worth asking before you sign
Ask what percentage applies if the case settles, if it is tried or if it is appealed, and whether that percentage changes at any stage. Ask whether case costs are subtracted first, or after the fee percentage is applied. Ask who will actually work on the file, and how often you will hear from the office. Ask whether the office will also handle a first-party medical-benefit dispute or an uninsured motorist claim, which can travel on a different track from the claim against the other driver.
If a public vehicle was involved, ask whether the lawyer has handled the six-month written statement in section 5522. If you elected limited tort, ask how that election changes the value of a noneconomic-loss claim under section 1705. Those are not rude questions. They are the questions Rule 1.5 expects the written agreement to make answerable.
Before you hire anyone, confirm that the lawyer’s Pennsylvania license is active. A license lookup belongs on the lawyer’s profile on this site when the profile is able to point to the official court search. Hours and fees should be confirmed with the office directly, because both can change.
What a fee agreement does not change
Hiring a lawyer does not extend the two-year period in section 5524, and it does not take the place of the six-month government statement. It also does not require you to sue. Many crash claims resolve without a filing. The agreement should still be clear enough that, if a filing is needed, you already know what it will cost if there is a recovery, and what happens if there is not.
If a friend or another lawyer referred you, Rule 1.5 also limits how a fee may be divided with a lawyer who is not in the same firm. The client is to be advised of, and not object to, the participation of all the lawyers involved, and the combined fee of the lawyers may not be illegal or clearly excessive for all legal services they rendered. If a referral fee is part of the arrangement, it should be explained up front, in the same plain language as the percentage itself.
Take the agreement home and read it. If a paragraph is not clear, ask for a sentence that is. A crash already comes with enough unanswered questions. The fee should not be one of them.