No percentage cap
No statute caps contingency fees in most South Carolina personal injury cases. The governing standard is Rule 1.5 of the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct, which prohibits an unreasonable fee rather than fixing a specific figure.
A distinctive wrinkle in South Carolina's Rule 1.5
South Carolina's version of Rule 1.5 departs from the ABA Model Rule in a specific way: it makes the reasonableness test under paragraph (a)(2) objective rather than subjective. The rule's comments also confirm directly that contingent fees, like any other fees, are subject to the same reasonableness standard as the rest of the rule.
What reasonableness actually weighs
Rule 1.5 points to the usual factors: the time and labor required, the skill needed to perform the work properly, the fee customarily charged for similar services in the locality, the amount involved, and whether the fee is fixed or contingent. Contingency fees in South Carolina generally range from about one-third to 40% of the recovery, depending on case complexity and whether the case settles or proceeds to trial.
A different approval process for workers' comp
It's worth keeping this separate from workers' compensation, where South Carolina law requires attorney fees to be submitted for approval by the Workers' Compensation Commission under a separate statute — still assessed against Rule 1.5's reasonableness factors, but through a formal approval process rather than a private agreement alone.