No percentage cap, but a "clearly excessive" standard
Oregon imposes no statutory percentage cap on contingency fees in personal injury cases. The governing standard is Oregon RPC 1.5(a), which prohibits an "illegal or clearly excessive fee," alongside RPC 1.8(i)(2), which permits a reasonable contingent fee in a civil case.
A real opinion on uncontested claims
Oregon State Bar ethics guidance has addressed a specific, concrete scenario: a contingent fee calculated on recovery of uncontested personal injury protection (PIP) benefits. If the only claim is an uncontested PIP benefit, with no separate disputed personal injury claim, the opinion states that a more-than-nominal contingent fee would be clearly excessive — because so little actual work or risk is involved.
A client-protective rule on statutory fee awards
If a court awards a statutory attorney fee that exceeds what the client owes under the private fee agreement, Oregon ethics guidance holds that the surplus belongs to the client, not the lawyer — unless the fee agreement expressly provides for the lawyer to take the greater amount. And in 2025, the Oregon Court of Appeals confirmed that the lodestar method (hours reasonably spent, multiplied by a reasonable rate) is the prevailing approach for determining a statutory fee-shifting award, even when the client retained counsel on a contingency basis.