---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT relating to government contracts. Create a new section of KRS 45A.690 to 45A.725 to establish standards and rules for the Attorney General when awarding contingency fee personal service contracts for legal services; require the Attorney General to make written findings of the need for a contingency fee contract; set limits on the amount of the contingency fee; require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to post information regarding the contract on its Web site; require the contractor to maintain certain records; require the Finance and Administration Cabinet and the Attorney General to submit a report on all contingency fee contracts to the Government Contract Review Committee by September 1 of each year; amend KRS 45A.695 to require the Attorney General to participate in discussions with contingency fee offerors to determine their qualifications; amend KRS 15.100 to conform."
description: "AN ACT relating to government contracts. Create a new section of KRS 45A.690 to 45A.725 to establish standards and rules for the Attorney General when awarding contingency fee personal service contracts for legal services; require the Attorney General to make written findings of the need for a contingency fee contract; set limits on the amount of the contingency fee; require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to post information regarding the contract on its Web site; require the contractor to maintain certain records; require the Finance and Administration Cabinet and the Attorney General to submit a report on all contingency fee contracts to the Government Contract Review Committee by September 1 of each year; amend KRS 45A.695 to require the Attorney General to participate in discussions with contingency fee offerors to determine their qualifications; amend KRS 15.100 to conform."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ky"
legislature: "Kentucky General Assembly"
session: "2018RS"
identifier: "HB 198"
citation: "Kentucky HB 198 (2018RS)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["J. Gooch Jr.", "J. Nemes"]
version_count: 15
action_count: 31
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2018-01-16"
last_action: "2018-04-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ebfac167-ce44-49a4-bfcf-2f006302362d"
source_url: "http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/18RS/HB198.htm"
source_hash: "c5337c4814acd1a703c8ad4a8cb204573dcd72b651198a5e8073e68c62b76f6f"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ky"]
---

# Kentucky HB 198 (2018RS) — AN ACT relating to government contracts. Create a new section of KRS 45A.690 to 45A.725 to establish standards and rules for the Attorney General when awarding contingency fee personal service contracts for legal services; require the Attorney General to make written findings of the need for a contingency fee contract; set limits on the amount of the contingency fee; require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to post information regarding the contract on its Web site; require the contractor to maintain certain records; require the Finance and Administration Cabinet and the Attorney General to submit a report on all contingency fee contracts to the Government Contract Review Committee by September 1 of each year; amend KRS 45A.695 to require the Attorney General to participate in discussions with contingency fee offerors to determine their qualifications; amend KRS 15.100 to conform.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB 198 (As Introduced)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/orig_bill.pdf)
2. **HFA1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA1.pdf)
3. **HFA10** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA10.pdf)
4. **HFA11** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA11.pdf)
5. **HFA12** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA12.pdf)
6. **HFA2** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA2.pdf)
7. **HFA3** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA3.pdf)
8. **HFA4** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA4.pdf)
9. **HFA5** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA5.pdf)
10. **HFA6** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA6.pdf)
11. **HFA7** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA7.pdf)
12. **HFA8** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA8.pdf)
13. **HFA9** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/HFA9.pdf)
14. **Most Recent Version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/bill.pdf)
15. **SCS1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/HB198/SCS1.pdf)

## Sponsors

- J. Gooch Jr. — primary (person)
- J. Nemes — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-16** Introduced in House `introduction`
- **2018-01-18** To Judiciary (H) `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-22** Posted in committee
- **2018-01-31** Reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar `reading-1`
- **2018-02-01** 2nd reading, to Rules `reading-2`
- **2018-02-02** Floor amendments (1), (2) and (3) filed
- **2018-02-05** Floor amendments (4) and (6) filed to HFA 1 and floor amendments (5) and (7) filed to the Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2018-02-07** Posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Thursday, February 8, 2018
- **2018-02-07** Floor amendment (8) filed to HFA 1 and floor amendment (9) filed to Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2018-02-08** Floor amendments (10), (11), and (12) filed to Committee Substitute
- **2018-02-15** 3rd reading `reading-3`
- **2018-02-15** Floor amendments (8) and (9) ruled out of order
- **2018-02-15** Floor amendments (4) and (6) defeated
- **2018-02-15** Passed 52-40 with floor amendment (1)
- **2018-02-16** Received in Senate
- **2018-02-20** To Judiciary (S) `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-15** Reported favorably, 1st reading, to Consent Calendar with Committee Substitute (1) `reading-1`
- **2018-03-16** 2nd reading, to Rules `reading-2`
- **2018-03-19** Posted for passage in the Consent Orders of the Day for Monday, March 19, 2018
- **2018-03-19** Taken from the Consent Orders of the Day, placed in the Regular Orders of the Day
- **2018-03-19** 3rd reading, passed 26-12 with Committee Substitute (1) `reading-3, passage`
- **2018-03-20** Received in House
- **2018-03-20** To Rules (H) `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-22** Taken from Rules (H)
- **2018-03-22** Posted for passage for concurrence in Senate Committee Substitute
- **2018-03-22** House concurred in Senate Committee Substitute
- **2018-03-22** Passed 57-36
- **2018-03-22** Enrolled, signed by Speaker of the House
- **2018-03-27** Enrolled, signed by President of the Senate
- **2018-03-27** Delivered to Governor
- **2018-04-02** Signed by Governor (Acts, ch. 87) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ebfac167-ce44-49a4-bfcf-2f006302362d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Kentucky legislature records).