In a decision that changes the standard for determining whether a contract is unconscionable, a divided Texas Supreme Court recently held that a payment-on-termination provision in a Houston firm’s contingent-fee contract is contrary to public policy.

“We hold this provision is unconscionable as a matter of law, and therefore, unenforceable,” Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson wrote for the majority in the court’s 6-3 decision in Hoover Slovacek v. Walton.