Salmon v. Atkinson 137 S.W.3d 383 Type of Action

This case was an appeal of a decision by a lower court in favor of the plaintiff (Atkinson) by the defendant (Salmon). The case involved the claim by the plaintiff, a lawyer, for the reasonable value of legal services rendered to the defendant, a client, pursuant to an explicit contract between the parties specifying that legal fees would be contingent upon an award to the client from wining the case for which she had retained the services of the attorney.

Facts

Salmon retained the legal services of Atkinson for the purpose of pursuing a legal claim that Salmon had against another party. The contractual agreement between Atkinson and Salmon was a contingency agreement, whereby no fees would be due unless Salmon was successful in the case litigated by Atkinson on her behalf. Before the case could be adjudicated, Salmon discharged Atkinson and pursued the case pro-se, utilizing all the same arguments that Atkinson...

Salmon appealed the decision and the appellate court affirmed the decision of the trial court.
Arguments of the Respective Parties

Atkinson argued that the contingency arrangement presumes that the lawyer will have the chance to litigate the case and that the decision of Salmon to discharge the attorney before that opportunity deprived the attorney of the ability to earn the contemplated contingency fee. Atkinson argued that if the client discharges the attorney and then pursues the case, the attorney is entitled to the reasonable value of the legal services actually rendered, particularly since the client utilized the research and briefing materials…