Fee arbitration rules, forms, and resources

The online form that starts the fee dispute. Either the client or the attorney can file. The filing fee is 5% of the amount in dispute, capped at $5,000, paid when you complete the form.

State Bar approved form, revised March 2013. An attorney must serve this before suing a client for fees. Substitute language on your own letterhead is not accepted.

If a lawsuit over the fees is already pending, this is what you file with the court along with a copy of your completed request for arbitration. Filing the request automatically stays the action, but BHBA does not communicate with the court, so this is how the court learns about it.

State Bar guide covering what the arbitrator decides, what evidence matters, how to organize documents and witnesses, and what actually happens in the room. Written for clients, useful to anyone appearing.

The document that arrives with your award. Explains the difference between a binding and non-binding award, how to request a trial in court, how to petition to correct or vacate, how to confirm an award as a judgment, and how to ask the State Bar to help collect an unpaid refund. Every one of those has a deadline.

Approved by the State Bar. These govern every case BHBA administers, including filing, panel assignment, hearings, awards, and confidentiality. Read them before you file.

The Mandatory Fee Arbitration Act. Establishes the client’s right to arbitrate, makes attorney participation mandatory when a client files, and sets out waiver, the effect of an award, and the time bar in section 6206.

Fee agreement requirements, including contingency fee limits in certain cases, writing requirements, and what has to be disclosed to the client.

How an arbitration award is confirmed, corrected, or vacated in court, and the deadlines that apply.

The State Bar’s written guidance on issues that come up repeatedly in fee arbitration, including how to assess whether a fee was reasonable, contingency fee disputes, and costs. Written primarily for arbitrators and attorneys, though anyone can read them.

California Supreme Court decision on how the Mandatory Fee Arbitration Act interacts with a binding arbitration clause in a fee agreement.

Model language for a fee agreement. A client’s statutory right to fee arbitration cannot be waived in advance, so this addresses what happens after the MFAA process rather than replacing it.

BHBA hears disputes connected to Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Most other counties have their own bar association program, and the State Bar handles disputes from counties that do not. This is the State Bar’s directory.

Fee arbitration decides whether a fee was reasonable. It does not decide whether an attorney committed malpractice or acted unethically. Those go to the State Bar, and you can pursue both.