Legal Question in Legal Ethics in California

Abusive Fees

I recently had a settlement with a case and it was for $123,000.00. During the pendency of the case the Lawyer did not give me any monthly statement thus i made several follow ups and inquired about the accounting/legal statement. I had made a payment of 3000.00 plus another 10,000.00 but after that I did not get any statement from this lawyer. Being a prevailing party i was entitled to attorney's fees and cost as what it turned out with the settlement. I was very upset when I finally pushed him to provide me a statement,it shows on the trust account that he had credited my payments and deducted all his fees amounting to 85,000.00 dollars. Can I file a case against this abusive lawyer trying to conceal the statement and when asked about the atty-client trust fund, he has only 30,000.00 left in the account. Please help me


Asked on 7/26/06, 12:55 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert F. Cohen Law Office of Robert F. Cohen

Re: Abusive Fees

Separate attorney's fees that can be awarded if a plaintiff is successful at trial usually do not exist if a case is settled. The attorney will be entitled to the contracted amount of fees, usually between 33-1/3% and 45%. In the retainer agreement, the parties usually had agreed that costs would be deducted from the client's portion of the settlement. So, what you need to do is demand an accounting from the attorney of the costs he's deducting from your portion. If you are not satisfied with his response (or he does not respond), you can demand non-binding fee arbitration or you can file suit. Usually a phone call or two will resolve the matter, however. You can also have another attorney communicate with the lawyer on your behalf, especially if he continues to hold disputed funds in the trust account.

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Answered on 7/26/06, 1:23 am


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