Big-firm lawyers in Australia have questioned calls from a government committee to introduce contingency fees in litigation, fearing it may lead to a rash of frivolous law suits and potentially compromise the fiduciary responsibility that lawyers have to their clients.
Unlike in the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia does not allow so-called contingency fees, where lawyers collect a percentage of their clients’ winnings in a case. But the Productivity Commission, an independent advisory body that makes policy recommendations to the Australian government, issued a draft report in April recommending that contingency fees be introduced in order to offer claimants another way to bring their cases to court when they otherwise might not be able to afford to do so.
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