We attorneys rarely see the interests of injured people align squarely with those of medical providers. Be it the fundamental nature of medical malpractice claims, attorney advertising seeking clients with such claims, or the prevalence of medical liens, the interests of injured people and medical providers in the legal arena are frequently unaligned—if not diametrically opposed.

That's what makes the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court's decision in Neves v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board, 232 A.2d 996 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2020), so significant. In Neves, the court ruled an attorney's contingency fee of 20% on an injured worker's medical compensation award was per se reasonable. In so ruling, the court aligned the interests of injured people (in this case, workers) with those of medical providers in a way that has profoundly changed the relationship between them within the commonwealth's workers' compensation system.