§ 103.101.Fees Limited; Prerequisites to Fee Agreement

The compensation figures are fixed by statute, so nobody has to negotiate for them. This subchapter makes sure nobody charges as if they did.

A fee for preparing, filing or curing an application may be charged only on a reasonable hourly rate. A percentage of an award that Section 103.052 already fixed would be a fee for arithmetic.

The bar reaches everyone, not only lawyers. The section says a person, including an attorney, which sweeps in any consultant or service that offers to handle the paperwork.

The rate must be disclosed in writing before the agreement is signed. An attorney may enter a fee agreement for this work only after telling the claimant, on paper, what the hourly rate will be.

Nothing may be collected until the comptroller has finished. No fee for preparing, filing or curing the application may be taken before a final determination that the claimant is eligible or ineligible.

That timing rule protects a person with nothing. A claimant fresh out of prison cannot pay in advance, and a claimant found ineligible should not have paid at all.

The three rules work together. An hourly rate caps what the work is worth, written disclosure makes the price knowable before the claimant agrees, and the collection bar keeps the fee tied to a completed application.