Litigation

But There's an Executive Order Against Contingency-Fee Lawyers

By Carter Wood

In the post below, "Labor Department promotes lawsuits," Ted highlighted the new partnership between the Department of Labor and the American Bar Association to put employees with complaints about their bosses in contact with contingency-fee lawyers.

But as we noted in a Shopfloor.org post Tuesday, "What about the Executive Order Barring Contingency Fee Lawyers?,"
there's a 2007 Executive Order still in effect that blocks Executive Branch agencies from hiring attorneys on contingency. The Obama Administration has let stand President George W. Bush's May 16, 2007, Executive Order No. 13433, "Protecting American Taxpayers From Payment of Contingency Fees." That order specifies:

(b) After the date of this order, no agency shall enter into a contingency fee agreement for legal or expert witness services addressed by section 1 of this order,  unless the Attorney General has determined that the  agency's entry into the agreement is required by law.

The DOL-ABA arrangement violates the spirit, if not the letter, of that Executive Order.

Full post as published by Point of Law on February 09, 2011 (boomark / email).