A contingent fee is when an attorney charges dependent upon a successful outcome in the case. It is often agreed to be a percentage of the total recovery to the client. Such fee arrangements are often used in negligence cases and other civil actions but not for criminal defense or divorce actions.
Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. It is estimated that the 2006 population was 54,660 Located in Petaluma is the Rancho Petaluma Adobe, a National Historic Landmark. It was built beginning in 1836 by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then Commandant of the San Francisco Presidio. It was the center of a vast 66,000 acre (270-km²) ranch stretching from Petaluma River to Sonoma Creek. The adobe is considered one of the best preserved buildings of its era in Northern California. Petaluma is a transliteration of the Coast Miwok phrase péta lúuma which means hill backside and probably refers to Petaluma's proximity to Sonoma Mountain. Petaluma has a well preserved, historic city center which includes many buildings that survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.