Connecticut: a genuine, tiered statutory cap
Under Connecticut General Statutes § 52-251c, personal injury, wrongful death, and property damage contingency fees are capped on a declining scale: 33.3% of the first $300,000, stepping down through 25%, 20%, and 15% tiers, to 10% on anything above $1.2 million.
How this differs from a flat-rate cap state
Michigan, by contrast, applies a single 33.33% ceiling regardless of how large the settlement is. Under a flat cap, the dollar amount of the fee simply scales proportionally with the recovery. Under Connecticut's declining scale, the effective percentage actually falls as the settlement grows — a $5 million recovery nets an effective rate around 13%, not 33.3%.
A genuinely unusual design nationally
Most states that cap contingency fees at all use a single flat percentage. A true multi-tier declining scale, like Connecticut's, is a rarer structure — shared by only a handful of other states, including New Jersey, which uses a comparable step-down approach on its own recoveries.
Why the declining structure exists
The stated purpose behind Connecticut's statute was to increase the share of a judgment or settlement that actually lands in the injured party's hands — particularly on larger recoveries, where a flat percentage would otherwise take an outsized dollar amount relative to the additional work a bigger case typically requires.
Still the exception nationally
Most states, including the majority covered across this site, leave the contingency fee percentage to private negotiation between attorney and client, subject only to a general reasonableness standard. Connecticut's statutory, tiered approach remains a genuine outlier — not the norm.