Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
how to get my money
i had an accident at a wal-mart store, i hired an attorney who settled the case with wal-mart 2 years ago, he received the check, a 2 party check about 8 months ago and i signed off on the check, i still hav'ent recieved my portion of the settlement, he told me first the medical bills all had to be paid, these bills at the time of injury were covered by medicare and i received there statement saying i don't owe them anything, why hav'ent i received my portion of the settlement, he has had this money for over 8 months now and when i call his office today i am told the girl handling this quit and he does not know anything about it. he is a reputable attorney, yet he is putting me off at every turn and not giving me any information. is there anything i can do? is there a law that he has to give me my share of the settlement or am i just out all my money and he gets it all because i signed off on the check?
4 Answers from Attorneys
Re: how to get my money
You may have to hire an attorney to get your money out of him. I'd be happy to try and extract your funds for $500 flat fee for review, letter, basic accounting, and telephone calls. You are entitled to the money. How much is it?
Re: how to get my money
A letter to the State Bar would be cheaper than hiring another attorney, and would get his attention pretty quickly.
Re: how to get my money
Here's my two cents worth: If you think he is basically a good guy who is simply not paying attention then you should send a letter to him, explaining your attempts to get him to pay, and advising him that unless you receive an accounting of the monies he is holding for you in trust, that you will have no choice but to report him to the state bar. Give him a week or ten days to solve the problem. Hearing nothing, or not getting your check by then will make the decision easy for you.
Re: how to get my money
I have seen this once before and with all due respect to another opinion above, I do not feel that you should be so nice to this attorney since he's already blown you off. You may have two choices. Please note however that the information provided below may not be accurate, but it's worth checking into...
First, contact the State Bar. There might be a fund available where you could recover what he was supposed to pay you. However, I'm not sure what all the ins and outs are with the fund although if you are paid by the Bar, they'll go after the attorney for the balance. The Bar will advise you further on this topic.
Or, hire an attorney to go after him. There may be some additional compensation depending. Call my office and I will speak with my partner who�s more knowledgeable about this area. 818.385.0520.