Florida Noncontingent Legal Services Engagement Letter

FLORIDA NONCONTINGENT LEGAL SERVICES ENGAGEMENT LETTER

Use only for a reviewed hourly or flat-fee engagement. Do not use this
document for a contingent fee. Rule 4-1.5 imposes separate contingent-fee
requirements and prohibitions. Do not add a malpractice-liability cap,
malpractice settlement, binding dispute clause, or prospective conflict
waiver without separate current-rule analysis and any required independent
representation or informed written consent.

1. Engagement control

The firm represents only the client named above. No affiliate, owner, officer,
employee, family member, insurer, or third-party payer is a client unless a
separate writing expressly says so.

2. Scope, objectives, and authority

Included services

[____________________________________________________________]

[____________________________________________________________]

Excluded services

Unless added by a signed writing, the engagement excludes:

• appeals, rehearing, retrial, enforcement, collection, or separate proceedings;
• tax, benefits, immigration, bankruptcy, criminal, regulatory, or ethics advice;
• work for any person or entity other than the named client; and
• services after the event or phase identified here: [________________].

Any limitation must be reasonable, lawful, and based on the client's informed
written consent under Rule 4-1.2(c).

No outcome is promised or guaranteed.

3. Communication

The firm will reasonably consult with the client, keep the client reasonably
informed, promptly respond to reasonable information requests, and explain
matters sufficiently for informed decisions, as Rule 4-1.4 requires. The client
will keep contact information current and promptly provide requested facts,
documents, decisions, and availability.

4. Fees and costs

Rule 4-1.5 prohibits an illegal, prohibited, or clearly excessive fee or cost.
Complete one fee route and delete the other before signature.

Option A — hourly

Rate changes require advance written notice of [____] days and apply only as
the completed agreement lawfully provides.

Option B — flat fee

This form does not make any fee nonrefundable. A nonrefundable fee requires a
separate reviewed writing that explains the parties' intent and complies with
Rule 4-1.5(e).

Advance, trust, and billing

Under Rule 5-1.1, advances for fees, costs, and expenses are trust funds until
properly applied. The firm will notify, deliver, and account for funds or
property as the rule requires. This agreement imposes no hard-coded interest,
late fee, acceleration, collection-fee award, or lien beyond current law and a
separately reviewed term.

Costs

The client is responsible for the following reasonable, disclosed costs:

[____________________________________________________________]

Third-party charges above $[________] require: [prior approval / identified
exception]. Any estimate is a planning estimate, not a guarantee.

5. Confidentiality, security, and third-party payers

The firm will protect information relating to the representation under Rule
4-1.6, including making reasonable efforts against unauthorized access or
disclosure. The client understands that confidentiality can be affected by
shared devices, workplace systems, copied recipients, public communications,
and third-party platforms.

Approved communication or technology limitations: [________________]

If someone other than the client pays fees or costs, identify the payer and use
a separate consent where needed:

6. Conflicts and multiple clients

The firm will not rely on a blanket consent to represent unknown future adverse
clients. Any actual or potential conflict requiring consent must be described
with enough information for an informed decision and must satisfy Rule 4-1.7.

Known conflict or material-limitation disclosure: [None / attach schedule]

Multiple clients in this matter: ☐ No ☐ Yes — attach a separate joint-
representation disclosure covering information sharing, decision conflicts,
withdrawal consequences, and the advantages and risks of common representation.

7. Client responsibilities

The client agrees to:

• provide accurate and complete information and preserve relevant material;
• appear, respond, and make decisions within agreed or legal deadlines;
• promptly disclose changed facts, contacts, interests, or conflicts;
• review invoices and raise specific questions promptly; and
• not ask the firm to engage in conduct prohibited by law or professional rules.

A missed client responsibility does not automatically end the engagement or
waive a right. The firm must still follow Rule 4-1.16 and any controlling court
order or law.

8. Ending the engagement

The client may discharge the firm at any time, subject to responsibility for
fees and costs properly due. The firm may withdraw only when the professional
rules and applicable law permit. Substantial failure to satisfy an obligation,
including payment, supports withdrawal under Rule 4-1.16(b)(3) only after
reasonable warning, and tribunal notice or permission may still be required.

On termination, the firm will take reasonably practicable steps to protect the
client's interests, including reasonable notice, time to obtain other counsel,
surrender of papers and property to which the client is entitled, and refund of
any advance fee or expense not earned or incurred.

This agreement does not invent a fixed statewide client-file destruction period.
The firm's current retention policy must be disclosed separately and reconciled
with the matter, client instructions, law, holds, and professional obligations.

9. Professional liability and insurance

This agreement contains no client indemnity for the firm's conduct and no
prospective malpractice-liability cap. Rule 4-1.8(h) prohibits a prospective
limitation unless permitted by law and the client is independently represented
in making the agreement.

Do not represent that insurance exists, applies, or covers a claim unless the
completed statement is accurate.

10. Fee or professional-liability disputes

This document does not impose binding arbitration, a jury waiver, an exclusive
forum, prevailing-party fees, confidentiality of a dispute, or a shortened
limitations period. Any such term requires a separate, conspicuous,
counsel-reviewed agreement after the client receives the disclosures and
independent-representation opportunity current law and professional rules
require.

The parties may discuss any then-available Florida Bar fee-arbitration or
grievance-mediation process without treating this paragraph as an advance
agreement to use it.

11. General terms

• This writing and its completed attachments describe the engagement.
• A scope or fee change must be documented in a reviewed writing.

• If a term conflicts with controlling law or professional duties, the
  controlling requirement governs; no text may be reformed to expand the
  firm's rights at the client's expense.

• Electronic signatures and counterparts may be used only after the parties
  confirm identity, authority, delivery, and any matter-specific formality.

12. Attachments and signatures

Attached and incorporated:

• ☐ Scope and excluded-services schedule
• ☐ Rate and staffing schedule
• ☐ Cost and advance schedule
• ☐ Specific conflict disclosure and consent
• ☐ Joint-representation disclosure
• ☐ Third-party-payer consent
• ☐ File-retention policy
• ☐ Other: [________________________________]

The client acknowledges receipt, an opportunity to ask questions, and agreement
to the completed terms. The client has not been asked to accept any uncompleted
optional clause.