The Sixth District of the California Court of Appeal last night issued its ruling on contingency fee contracts between public entities and private plaintiff attorneys, holding that such arrangements are valid.

Moreover, the panel said that there was no authority which applied to County of Santa Clara v. Superior Court of the County of Santa Clara such that contingency agreements in that specific case were barred.

Specifically, because the in-house counsel retain decision-making control, there is no issue of the separation of powers, the panel said.