*1. Fee: A fixed charge or perquisite charged as recompense for labor and trouble, a reward, compensation, or wage given to a person for performance of professional services or something done or to be done. People v. Goulding, 275 Mich. 353, 226 N.W. 378, 379.

*2. Contingent Fee: A fee stipulated to be paid to an attorney for his services in conducting a suit or other forensic proceeding only in case he wins it; it may be a percentage of the amount recovered. Adopted in Gray v. Stern, 85 Wash. 645, 149 P. 26, 28.

*3. Cost: The amount originally expended in performing a particular act or operation, or for production or construction, as of a building. Kempf v. Ranger, 132 Minn. 64, 155 N.W. 1059, 1060

* Excerpted from Blacks Law Dictionary with Guide to Pronounciation, Fourth Edition