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.
Both have to be spelled out from the start
Nebraska requires a contingent fee agreement to be in writing and to explain how both the fee and any expenses are calculated — documenting the two categories separately rather than leaving the distinction to be sorted out later, after the case concludes.
The court-approval step focuses specifically on the fee
In a medical malpractice case, it's the contingent fee arrangement itself that requires court approval under the Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act — a genuine procedural check that doesn't apply to ordinary personal injury fees. Case costs, by contrast, remain a separate reimbursement category throughout, documented in the same written agreement but not subject to that same approval step.
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.