No statutory percentage cap
Virginia has no statutory cap on contingency fees in personal injury cases. The governing standard is Rule 1.5 of the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct, which requires a reasonable fee rather than fixing a specific figure.
A one-third fee confirmed reasonable by a real court ruling
In Moncrieffe v. Deno (2023), the Court of Appeals of Virginia affirmed a trial court's enforcement of a one-third contingency fee as reasonable under Rule 1.5. The case arose from a dispute between two Virginia attorneys over how a referral fee should be split — one argued for one-third of the recovery, the other for a smaller 7.5% figure — and the court upheld the one-third fee as reasonable given the circumstances.
A different context where fees have been capped before
Virginia has shown willingness to limit contingency fees in at least one specific context: a 2018 bill would have capped contingency fees paid to outside counsel the state retains for its own litigation. Then-Governor Ralph Northam vetoed it, reasoning that contingency arrangements benefit Virginia taxpayers at no upfront cost. This episode concerned government-retained counsel, not the contingency fees injured plaintiffs pay their own attorneys, which remain governed solely by Rule 1.5.
What a Virginia agreement must include
Rule 1.5(c) requires a contingency fee agreement to state in writing the method by which the fee is determined, including whether litigation and other expenses are deducted before or after the contingent fee is calculated. One-third of the recovery is a commonly used figure in Virginia personal injury practice.