subject: Fees for Attorneys Can Grow Rapidly and Pile Up [print this page] This fee is purely an American invention, very much like poker. England and most of Europe have taken the position that the attorney cannot participate in a lawsuit if there is only an arrangement that the attorney is paid if the case is successful. Injured workers were first helped in the US in 1848 with contingency fees. They didn't have any money to file a civil suit, so the contingency fee solved the problem.
