Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: attorney's expenses

Your written retainer agreement controls. Have the agreement reviewed by another lawyer to get an answer. Call me if I can help.

Re: attorney's expenses

Take a look at your written retainer agreement and see what it says about court costs and litigation expenses. If the agreement doesn't spell it out, then address the issue with your attorney. Know that if you have a dispute about fees with your attorney, he must hold in his client trust account whatever amount is disputed, pending arbitration of the issues. I would imagine that your fee agreement spells out that 40% represents his attorney fees, and not costs and expenses.

Re: attorney's expenses

Just to add to Mr. Lee's excellent answer, the chances are overwhelming that this is accomplished in your retainer agreement.

Also, if you disagree with attorney fees, the State Bar has a Fee Disputes Committee which will arbitrate the differences.

Good luck!

Re: attorney's expenses

The normal approach in Northern California is to subtract from the gross award/settlement all the costs and expenses, the attorney then takes their percentage. In Southern California apparently the attorney takes the agreed to percentage from the gross sum, then reduces what is left by costs, etc, and the client gets what remains. This latter approach of course results in the attorney getting more; it also seems to be a less logical result. But as you have been told, the retainer contract should spell it out. If there is anything ambiguous, then if the words can be read in two or more ways, you take the logical reading that most favors the client, who did not write up the contract. Go to the State Bar web site to see the rules governing what must be in the fee agreement; if your contract is void/voidable because it does not contain all the requirements, then your attorney is entitled to the reasonable value of their work, which might end up being similar to the percentage.

Also, most attorney provisions state one percentage if the matter is settled before trial, another if the case actually has to go to trial. A settlement is pre-trial so the lower percentage would take effect. You could also tell your attorney that you are willing to settle for any sum as long as you get a net of $X from it.