County of Santa Clara v. Superior Court, 50 Cal. 4th 35; 235 P.3d 21 (Cal. 2010)
A line of California caselawhad prohibited all contingent fee contracts with outside counsel in government nuisance cases. The California supreme court narrowed its prior decision. In this case, the contingency fee contracts provided that the public entities’ government counsel “retain final authority over all aspects of the litigation.” The court held that contingent fee contracts…