DP4532 Conditional versus Contingent Fees
Author(s): | Winand Emons |
Publication Date: | August 2004 |
Keyword(s): | adverse selection, conditional fees, contingent fees, moral hazard, pooling, screening |
JEL(s): | D82, K10 |
Programme Areas: | Industrial Organization |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=4532 |
Under contingent fees the attorney gets a share of the judgement; under conditional fees the lawyer gets an upscale premium if the case is won which is, however, unrelated to the adjudicated amount. We compare conditional and contingent fees in a framework where lawyers are uninformed about the clients? cases. If there is asymmetric information about the merits of cases, in equilibrium attorneys will offer only conditional fees. If there is asymmetric information about the risk of cases, only contingent fee contracts are offered in equilibrium.