State Medicaid Programs and Contingency Fee Lawyers: The Wrong Prescription

Scott Smith’s current article on NuisanceLaw.com highlights the problem with governments retaining private trial lawyers on a contingency fee basis to pursue lawsuits. Private lawyers motivated solely by profit are not able to make decisions about a case that threatens their return on investment.

There is a balancing of interests that governments of all levels have to make in pursuing claims. As Scott’s article points out, pursuing a claim at the risk of shutting down a government program that helps citizens is unlikely to be a choice a government attorney would make. Where, however, the government “deputizes” private counsel and gives their new deputies a financial stake in the outcome of a case through the contingency fee agreement, those sorts of bad choices can and are made.