Opinion ID: 1470023
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Defendants' Contention

Text: We now turn to address defendants' contention that contingent fee agreements between the Attorney General and private counsel are violative of Rhode Island law because (in defendants' view) such agreements are tantamount to an unlawful appropriation of state funds. The defendants contend that, when the Office of the Attorney General finds itself in receipt of money that rightly is the state's, it must pay all of that money into the General Treasury. [53] The defendants maintain that contingent fee agreements would permit the Attorney General to circumvent the statutory requirement of payment to the General Treasury because such agreements would provide that a percentage of any damages would have to be paid to outside counsel before the balance would be passed on to the General Treasury. As defendants phrase their argument, officers of the state, including the Attorney General, are not permitted to decide for themselves to divert the State's receipts   . B