Fee Arbitration Board Filing Process and Forms
To initiate the FAB process, please click on the links for the
FAB Petition and Fee Arbitration Board Rules (below), print, fill
out and forward your original, completed petition to the address
provided in the Petition.
If the amount charged by the attorney is greater than $10,000,
please send the original and four (4) copies of the petition itself
and five (5) copies of any documentation pertinent to the
arbitration proceedings.
If the amount charged by the attorney is $10,000 or less, please
send the original and two (2) copies of the petition and three (3)
copies of any accompanying documentation.
If you are the person initiating the arbitration, you are the
"Petitioner" and must file the "Petition for Arbitration" together
with a $25 non-refundable filing fee. If the "Respondent," the
person with whom the Petitioner has the dispute, agrees to
participate in the process, the $25 filing fee is applied
to the Petitioner's total filing fee, as indicated below, and
the remainder of the fee becomes due. The Respondent pays the
Respondent's full fee at the time that s/he files the "Respondent
Agreement" with the MBA.
The appropriate filing fee can be determined by referring to
Rule III(c) (Page 2) of the Rules of the Legal Fee Arbitration
Board.
Total Amount of Legal Fees Charged ----- Total Filing Fee Due
From Each Party
Up to
$2,500......................................................$
50
Above $2,500 to $5,000...................................$
75
Above $5,000 to $25,000.................................$150
Above
$25,000...................................................$225
The MBA makes available to the public the following documents in
PDF format from the Fee Arbitration Board. If you do not have a PDF
reader, you can download the free Acrobat Reader from Adobe.com.
Model Fee
Agreements
The Massachusetts Bar Association publishes four helpful model
fee agreements. Fee agreements should simply and accurately reflect
the agreement that is reached regarding what legal work will be
provided, how much of an attorney's fee will be charged, and how
often billing will occur. Please note that these models include an
interest rate clause and arbitration clause for fee disputes. If
you would like a model without one or both of these optional
clauses, e-mail us.