No percentage cap
New Hampshire imposes no statutory percentage cap on contingency fees. The governing standard is reasonableness, under RSA 508:4-e and Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5. Most contingency fees range from one-third to 40% of the total recovery.
A court-approval threshold that applies broadly
New Hampshire does impose one genuinely distinctive procedural check: any personal injury action settling or resulting in judgment of $200,000 or more requires court approval of all fees and costs. Unlike states that limit court review to medical malpractice specifically, this threshold applies to personal injury claims generally — a meaningfully wider reach.
A mandatory disclosure before signing
Before entering a contingent fee arrangement, an attorney must advise the client of their right to instead retain the attorney on an hourly basis, compensated at the reasonable value of the services rendered. The client has to be given this choice explicitly, not just offered the contingency option by default.