The contingency fee arrangement — where an attorney agrees to handle a case for a percentage of the recovery, charging no fee if there is no recovery — is one of the primary mechanisms by which people who cannot afford hourly legal fees gain access to the legal system. Properly structured and ethically managed, contingency arrangements create genuine alignment between attorney and client. But they also create dangerous incentives: pressure to settle cases quickly for less than their value, motivation to take cases the attorney cannot properly prosecute, and the potential for fee arrangements that consume so much of the client's recovery that the theoretical access to justice becomes a practical exploitation. This topic examines contingency fee ethics across the country, including cases where fee arrangements crossed the line.