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Changing Injury Lawyers in California Mid-Case Without Owing a Second Fee
You can fire your personal injury lawyer in California at any time, for any reason, and hire someone else.
The lawyer you leave does not keep a full contingency fee.
Under a 1972 California Supreme Court decision, that lawyer is paid only the reasonable value of the work already done, and only if your case recovers money.
The change itself takes one form, signed by you, and the new firm handles the rest.
Your claim, your deadlines, and the evidence gathered so far all move with you.
If an offer or a filing deadline is coming up, call (888) 713-6653 with questions about changing lawyers.
Why Injured Clients Change Lawyers Before Their Case Resolves
Most people who change lawyers do it long before any result, because of how the case is being handled.
- No answers. Weeks pass without a returned call, and nobody can say where the claim stands. California's Business and Professions Code § 6068(m) requires a lawyer to respond promptly to a client's reasonable status inquiries and keep the client informed of significant developments.
- Pressure to take the first number. The firm is urging you to accept an offer that does not cover the medical bills you already have, let alone the care ahead.
- No lawyer on the case. Every conversation is with a case manager, and you have never spoken with the attorney whose name is on the agreement.
- No lawsuit, and a deadline coming. The two-year filing period under CCP § 335.1 is closing, or a six-month government claim was never filed, and nobody has explained why.
- A serious injury in a volume practice. The case has grown into surgery, permanent limits, or a death, and the firm handling it is built for quick settlements.
Any one of those is a reason to get a second read of the file. Our page on getting a second opinion on a California settlement offer covers what that review looks at when an offer is already on the table.
Changing lawyers late costs less than settling a serious case for the wrong number, because a signed release cannot be undone.
What Fracasse v. Brent Means for the Lawyer You Leave
In Fracasse v. Brent, the California Supreme Court held that a client may discharge a lawyer at any time, with or without cause, and that a discharged lawyer working on contingency is limited to the reasonable value of the services performed, often called quantum meruit.[1]
The court tied that payment to the same contingency as the original agreement. The first lawyer's claim arises only if and when the case recovers money. If the case is lost, the first lawyer is paid nothing, as the agreement promised.
Reasonable value is measured by the work done, such as the investigation, the records gathered, the demand written, and the lawsuit filed, and it can fall well below the full contract fee. A lawyer who took a case from the first call through two years of discovery has a larger claim than one who sent an intake letter and stopped.
In practice, the two firms usually divide one contingency fee at the end of the case, so your percentage stays where it was. Ask the new firm to put that commitment in writing before you sign.
A serious injury case deserves a lawyer the client trusts. When that trust is gone, California makes leaving inexpensive, and the case loses nothing in the move.
How the MC-050 Substitution of Attorney Form Moves Your Case
If a lawsuit has been filed, the change is made with Judicial Council form MC-050, Substitution of Attorney, signed by you and the new lawyer and filed with the court.[2] Code of Civil Procedure § 284 allows the change by consent of both you and the departing lawyer, and if that lawyer will not sign, the court can order the change on your application.
If no lawsuit has been filed, the new firm sends written notice of the change to the departing lawyer and to every insurer on the claim, and asks the insurers to direct all contact to the new firm.
Your file comes with you. California Rule of Professional Conduct 1.16(e) requires a lawyer whose representation has ended to promptly release the client's materials and property on request, which includes correspondence, pleadings, discovery, and expert reports, whether or not a fee dispute exists.[3] The new firm normally makes that request for you.
None of this resets your case. The filing date, the claim numbers, and the evidence stay exactly where they were.
When the First Lawyer Asserts a Lien on Your California Settlement
A departing lawyer will often send the insurer a notice of lien, claiming a share of any settlement for the work already done. The lien does not stop your case or give the first lawyer any say in whether you settle.
Whether the lien holds up depends on the agreement you signed. A lien securing hourly fees needs the client's informed written consent under the ethics rules, as the California Supreme Court held in Fletcher v. Davis.[4] A lien that secures a contingency fee does not need that consent, but it still cannot give the first lawyer more than the reasonable value of the work under Fracasse.
When a settlement arrives, the amount the two lawyers dispute is held in a trust account until it is resolved, and the undisputed money, including your share, can be paid out. If the amount stays disputed, the first lawyer has to prove it in a separate proceeding rather than by holding up your case.
A lien is a fee argument between lawyers, and it should never become the reason a client accepts less.
A Contingency Agreement That Breaks § 6147 Can Be Voided
Business and Professions Code § 6147 requires a California contingency agreement to be in writing, signed, with a copy to the client, and to state the fee percentage, how costs and disbursements affect the fee and your recovery, and that the fee is not set by law and can be negotiated, or, in a medical malpractice case, that the statutory rates are maximums.[5]
An agreement missing those terms is voidable at the client's option. If you void it, the lawyer is limited to a reasonable fee rather than the percentage written into the contract.
The full list of required terms, and the medical malpractice fee limits, are on our page about California contingency fee agreement rules.
Reading the agreement you already signed takes a few minutes, and it can change how much the first lawyer is owed.
Fee Disputes and the State Bar's Mandatory Fee Arbitration Program
If you and a former lawyer cannot agree on what that lawyer is owed, the State Bar of California's Mandatory Fee Arbitration Program, created by Business and Professions Code § 6200 and the sections after it, gives you a forum.[6]
Arbitration is optional for the client and mandatory for the lawyer once the client asks for it. A lawyer who sues a client over fees must first notify the client of the right to arbitrate, and the client has 30 days to ask for it. County bar associations run most programs, and the award is not binding unless both sides agree in writing, after the dispute arises, to be bound; otherwise either side can ask for a trial within 30 days of the award.
Most fee disputes after a switch are settled between the two firms without the client involved at all.
Six Steps Before You Switch Personal Injury Lawyers
- Sign nothing new from an insurer. A release or a settlement check endorsement ends the claim.
- Write down the dates. The date of the injury, any lawsuit filing date, and whether a public entity is involved decide how much time is left.
- Meet the new lawyer first. Keep your current lawyer until the new firm has agreed to take the case, so you are never unrepresented near a deadline.
- Get the fee arrangement in writing. Ask how the first lawyer's share will be handled and confirm your percentage will not grow.
- Let the new firm send the notices. The substitution form, the letters to the insurers, and the file request go out together.
- Keep treating. A gap in medical care while lawyers change hands becomes the insurer's argument that you recovered.
Doing these in order keeps the claim moving the whole time, with no week where nobody is responsible for it.