Success billing is a method for lawyers to bill and charge clients based on the favorable outcome of the services rendered by the lawyer. This billing method is an alternative fee arrangement because the client pays the lawyer under a scheme different from the traditional hourly rate system, whereby lawyers charge clients based on the total number of hours spent working on the matter.
Although lawyers may use a success-billing method in a variety of legal matters, they commonly implement it in litigation. For example, the client and the lawyer might agree that the client will pay the lawyer X amount of dollars if the lawyer settles the lawsuit at Y amount of dollars. Other examples include favorable negotiations in a transaction or the successful conclusion of a corporate merger.
[Last updated in September of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]