When Written Fee Agreements are required for Attorneys

(a)In representing a client, an attorney shall have a written fee agreement which is signed by the client if: COL070307 CH. 9A A TTORNEY ADMISSION AND D ISCIPLINE

(1)The contemplated fee is in excess of $500, or

(2)An appearance is required or reasonably contemplated before any court or agency by the attorney, or

(3)The fee is contingent.

(b)Such fee agreements shall be in clear and concise language and shall clearly spell out the general nature of the work to be done by the attorney and the financial obligation of the client to pay for such work. In uncontested matters, it shall spell out the financial obligations if the matter becomes contested. If the fee is based on an hourly rate, the hourly rate shall be stated.

(c)An attorney shall have his or her client sign such a fee agreement within forty-eight

(48)hours of the time the attorney is retained unless that is impossible because the client is outside of Guam or incarcerated or otherwise unavailable, in which case a fee agreement shall be signed at the earliest possible time.

(d)Within ninety

(90)days of this section becoming law, the Ethics Committee of the Guam Bar Association shall publish various model fee agreements and make the same available to Bar Association members of use or modification, but use of such model forms shall not be mandatory as long as the form used complies with this section.

(e)In the absence of a required fee agreement with the client, claims for attorneys fees incurred before a fee agreement was signed shall be unenforceable.

(f)Any attorney who is representing clients without written fee agreements on the effective date of this section shall have sixty

(60)days to obtain such written fee agreements.

(g)Nothing herein shall prevent the parties from amending any fee agreement, nor shall it prevent an attorney raising his or her hourly rates upon thirty

(30)days notice to the client if such right is reserved in the agreement.

(h)An attorney may withdraw from representation of his or her client when the court finds at a hearing after notice to the client that such client has failed to meet the financial obligations set out in the written fee agreement.

(i)Subsections (a), (b), (c), (e), (f), and

(g)of this section shall become effective ninety

(90)days after this section becomes law, and the remaining COL070307 CH. 9A A TTORNEY ADMISSION AND D ISCIPLINE subsections shall go into effect on the date this section becomes law."

(j)No attorney may accept land as a fee for any legal work without the prior approval of the Superior Court and upon a finding by the Court that the fee arrangement is fair, and that the worth of the land used in calculating the amount of the fee is its fair market value. No attorney may accept a mortgage on real property to secure the payment of fees.