No percentage cap
Maryland imposes no statutory percentage cap on contingency fees in personal injury or medical malpractice cases. The governing standard is reasonableness, under Maryland Rule 19-301.5(a). Most contingency fees fall between 33.3% and 40% of the total recovery.
A genuinely consequential disclosure requirement
Rule 19-301.5(c) requires every Maryland retainer agreement to state explicitly whether the contingency fee is calculated before or after case expenses are deducted. Both methods are entirely legal — but they produce different net amounts for the client on the exact same gross recovery and the exact same percentage, since one method applies the fee to a larger base figure than the other.
A real disciplinary case on fee reasonableness
Maryland courts do enforce the reasonableness standard. In Attorney Grievance Commission v. Korotki, the leading Maryland case on this question, an attorney was disciplined after a fee arrangement — following increases the attorney obtained for handling an appeal — reached 75% of the client's recovery, a result the court found unreasonable under the governing factors.
What else comes out before you do
Beyond the fee itself, if Medicare, Medicaid, or a private health insurer has an outstanding lien for medical treatment related to the injury, that amount is also repaid before you receive your net share.