The attorney's fee: compensation for the work
The contingency fee is the attorney's own compensation for handling the case — calculated as a percentage of the settlement or award. It's earnings, not a reimbursement, and it's what the attorney keeps for taking on the risk and the work of the case.
Case costs: real expenses the case required
Case costs are something entirely different: actual out-of-pocket expenses the case genuinely needed. This typically includes expert witness fees, court filing fees, the cost of obtaining medical records, deposition transcripts, and similar litigation expenses. These are reimbursed, not earned.
The distinction survives even when a case ends unexpectedly
In Campbell v. Bozeman Investors of Duluth (1998), the Montana Supreme Court addressed what a fired attorney was owed after a client switched counsel mid-case. The court's analysis kept the attorney's fee question — the reasonable value of services performed — conceptually separate from any genuine costs the attorney had advanced, rather than treating the full contingency agreement as an all-or-nothing package. That same separation applies in the more ordinary case where representation runs its full course.
Reasonableness covers both
Montana Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5's reasonableness standard isn't limited to the percentage fee alone — expenses charged to the client are also expected to meet that same basic standard, even though they're calculated on an entirely different basis than the fee itself.
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 entirely on the individual fee agreement.