To be sure, Pennsylvania practitioners are permitted to charge earned upon receipt fees. But, when doing so, lawyers should exercise extreme caution to ensure their handling and retention of such fees would survive the Office of Disciplinary Counsel’s scrutiny in the event of a complaint. The earned upon receipt fee calls into question multiple Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct (rules) and, where lawyers’ compliance efforts fall short, they could face sanctions.

Generally speaking, an earned upon receipt fee is a fee that a lawyer charges upfront, before performing any actual work on a client’s matter. A lawyer may claim that this type of fee is “earned” once paid, and therefore nonrefundable.

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