How much does a civil rights lawyer cost in California?

Most plaintiff-side civil rights cases — excessive force, false arrest, discrimination by a business — are taken on contingency, and fee-shifting statutes are the reason: 42 U.S.C. § 1988 lets a prevailing plaintiff recover reasonable attorney fees in a section 1983 case, and California's Bane and Unruh Acts carry their own fee provisions.

Civil rights litigation is expensive to prosecute — police-practices and medical experts, depositions, and years of motion practice — so plaintiff-side attorneys typically work on contingency, taking a negotiated percentage of any recovery and advancing costs. What makes that viable is statutory fee-shifting. In federal civil rights actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a court may award a prevailing plaintiff reasonable attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, paid by the defendant in addition to damages. California's parallel statutes do the same: the Bane Act authorizes attorney fees (Civil Code section 52.1), and the Unruh Civil Rights Act awards fees along with its statutory damages (Civil Code section 52). Contingency agreements must be in writing, signed by attorney and client, and must state that the percentage is negotiable (Business and Professions Code section 6147). Ask how the contingency percentage interacts with a statutory fee award, who advances costs, and what happens with costs if the case does not succeed.

Authority: 42 U.S.C. § 1988