The attorney's fee: capped, and calculated on the gross recovery
Connecticut's sliding-scale contingency fee is the attorney's own compensation for handling the case, calculated tier by tier against the settlement or award. It's capped by statute, and it's earnings, not a reimbursement.
Case costs: a specifically defined category
Case costs are something entirely different: real out-of-pocket expenses the case required. Under Connecticut General Statutes § 52-251c, this typically includes fees and travel expenses for medical experts and witnesses, court filing fees, jury fees, medical record copying costs, service of process fees, and expenses tied to investigating the case and deposing witnesses. These are reimbursed separately from the capped fee, not counted against it.
What the statute specifically excludes
Here's where Connecticut's statute gets genuinely precise: it explicitly states that "ordinary office overhead and expense" doesn't count as a disbursement or cost. In practice, this means things like office rent, heat and lighting, and staff wages can't be billed to the client as an extra cost on top of the capped fee — a specific consumer protection built directly into the statute's text.
How the fee and costs interact
The statutory worked examples calculate the sliding-scale fee against the gross settlement or award amount, with case costs and disbursements then reimbursed separately from what remains after the fee. Understanding this order helps explain why the amount a client actually receives, after both the fee and costs come out, is lower than simply subtracting the headline fee percentage alone.
Who fronts the money while the case is pending
Commonly, the attorney's office advances case costs as the litigation proceeds, with reimbursement coming out of the eventual settlement or award. The specific arrangement, including what happens to those advanced costs if the case doesn't result in any recovery, depends on the individual fee agreement.