That's not completely accurate. They can charge you something up front for expenses. And the maximum fee is increasing in June. Nevertheless, it does depend on what your representation agreement with your attorney states about the fee process.

Where do you get it that "most lawyers consider that to be somewhat unethical"? On a contingency case, lawyers put THEIR money out of THEIR OWN pocket for YOUR case for reasonable expenses. If you did that for someone, would you consider it unethical to ask for your money to be returned? Or do you consider a contractor who goes out and spends his own money for building supplies to be unethical if he also charges a fee for doing his work AND charges you for the supplies he bought?

It's not like lawyers have expenses like malpractice insurance, office supplies, payroll expenses, rent, legal research costs, or other expenses, right? They get all that for free--just because they're lawyers, right? They obviously don't deserve to be reimbursed for money they've advanced for a case. And they probably don't deserve a fee on top of the money they've advanced for a case too. <sigh>

There ARE cases where an attorney will not charge you expenses OR a fee. Sometimes lawyers do pro bono work, which is great. But attorneys who handle contingency cases cannot afford to put out lots of $$ for expenses for cases they aren't certain they're going to get a fee in. And there's always legal aid where they don't charge you a fee--IF they have the staff to handle Social Security disability cases and IF you meet the income guidelines for their program.