Matter of Friedman

In Matter of Friedman, 136 A.D. 750 (2nd Dept. 1910), a contingency fee agreement of 50% of the amounts recovered was held by the Court to not be fraudulent per se in all instances. However the Second Department stated: "But such a recovery may be such that what was in the first instance a fair contract becomes unfair in its enforcement . . . the recovery may be such that the lawyer's retention of it would be unjustified, and would expose him to the reproach of oppression and overreaching." (supra at 752.)