Contracts — attorney fees

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Wisconsin Court of Appeals

Civil

Contracts — attorney fees

An attorney hired on a contingency basis who is discharged without cause before performing any substantial services is entitled to fees.

“Turning to a portion of the circuit court’s rationale, we are uncertain why the circuit court concluded that Tonn does not apply here on the ground that its application would interfere with the court’s supervisory authority to determine fees for either Laufenberg or Habush.  It is true that Tonn limits the court’s authority in the sense that Tonn provides a measure of contract damages that are owed to attorneys who have been discharged without cause.  In particular, given Tonn, the court cannot exercise its authority to reduce the amount owed to the discharged attorney for the reason that the attorney was discharged without cause, or that the attorney did not perform substantial services.  That would be an end run around Tonn.  What remains for the circuit court, assuming as we must for now that Laufenberg’s discharge was without cause, is to subtract from Laufenberg’s contingency fee a ‘fair allowance for the services and expenses’ that Laufenberg would ‘necessarily have … expended … in performing the balance of the contract,’ see Tonn, 6 Wis. 2d at 505, and to exercise its supervisory authority over Laufenberg’s contingency fee agreement if appropriate, see id. at 504 (‘contingent fee contract is always subject to the supervision of the court as to its reasonableness’ (emphasis added)); Markwardt, 296 Wis. 2d 512, ¶16 (quoting Tonn for same proposition).”

Affirmed and Remanded.

Recommended for publication in the official reports.

2012AP2539 Tesch v. Laufenberg, Stombaugh & Jassak, S.C.

Dist. IV, Dane County, Sumi, J., Blanchard, J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Laufenberg, Lynn R., Milwaukee; For Respondent: Covelli, Claude J., Madison