The core promise: no recovery, no fee
A contingency fee means the attorney's fee is contingent — dependent — on actually winning or settling the case. If there's no recovery at all, the client generally owes no attorney fee, regardless of how much work went into the case.
What the agreement is legally required to say
Colorado's contingency fee rules, closely tied to Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5, require a written agreement that clearly states the event that triggers the lawyer's right to the contingent fee, and includes statements about the possibility of a court awarding costs or attorney fees — both in the client's favor and against them. The agreement must be signed by both the client and the lawyer.
A specific client protection worth knowing about
One detail Colorado's rules spell out explicitly: if the attorney brings in associated counsel to help with the case, that doesn't automatically increase what the client pays. The contingent fee stays the same unless the client specifically agrees to a change — a protection against a case quietly becoming more expensive as more lawyers get involved.
Case expenses: a separate question from the fee itself
Who pays case expenses — expert witness fees, filing fees, the cost of gathering medical records — is addressed separately from the contingency fee promise itself. The written agreement should set out how computation of the contingent fee interacts with these costs, and whether they come out before or after the fee is calculated.
It's a negotiated agreement, not a fixed rate
Because Colorado imposes no statutory cap on the percentage, the specific rate is set through private negotiation between attorney and client before representation begins — worth discussing explicitly, and worth reading carefully given how much Colorado's rules spell out about what the agreement must disclose.