By Jerry Broadus, PLS, Esq. Contingent fees represent a business arrangement whereby the consideration for services is based on an outcome rather than on the amount or type of work performed. The ethical basis for contingent fees in the law is that access to justice is often urgent and should not be denied or delayed while a person who has suffered a wrong searches for financing to pay a lawyer's fee. Contingent fees for surveying or engineering services are more controversial.
Most surveyors regard contingent fees with distrust.
More than one author has stated that contingent fees in surveys often are unethical. One's professional judgment could certainly be clouded when working under this sort of arrangement. I find it too much the appearance of a conflict of interest and often a completely unethical arrangement. That text states that contingent fees are sometimes used in situations where the consultant is paid only if he or she succeeds in saving the client money in some project. It agrees that contingent fees invite a clouding of judgment, but argues that they should be explored as a way to stimulate imaginative and responsible ways to save costs for the public.