No percentage cap — but not fully hands-off either
Nebraska imposes no statutory percentage cap on contingency fees in personal injury cases generally. The governing standard is reasonableness, under the Nebraska Rules of Professional Conduct. Most contingency fees range from 33.3% to 40% of the total recovery.
Medical malpractice: a genuine court-approval requirement
In medical malpractice cases specifically, Nebraska goes further than most states. Under the Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act, contingent attorney fee arrangements require actual court approval — not just a private agreement that's reviewed for reasonableness only if someone challenges it later. This is a genuine, built-in check specific to malpractice claims, distinct from the general reasonableness standard that governs ordinary personal injury fees.
A fee agreement isn't necessarily frozen once signed
Nebraska ethics guidance treats a contingent fee agreement as an ordinary contract that the parties can modify by mutual agreement if circumstances genuinely change — it's not automatically locked in at the original terms for the life of the case, though any change still has to meet the usual reasonableness requirements.