I have read that most of the medical malpractice lawsuits are on contingency basis - where if there is favorable judgment, the lawyer gets paid as percentage of settlement after other legal cost.

We recently talked with a lawyer regarding a potential medical malpractice lawsuit - he is asking that we first spend $3K for initial consultant with a medical expert (of his choice) - if the expert advise is favorable, then he is willing to take the case. However when he does take the case, he says as per California law, he is only advancing the cost towards other legal expenses - if we win, first the legal expenses are paid (excluding his fees), then he gets a percentage of settlement - balance we get paid (this part more or less sounds right). However, if we loose, legally he says we owe him the legal cost (other then his fee), we have to sign to this fact in the initial agreement - though he does mention verbally that normally this is not collected by the law firm if the judgment is unfavorable. Is this normal?

Also, is the request for us to pay the initial medical expert fee normal too?

Its just that we do not have too much free cash flow - and though both (us and lawyer) believes there is merit in the case, we do not want to get into something that has a potential of making our life worse.

Thanks in advance for your advise.