Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Personal injury lawsuit and liens

I had a discrimination lawsuit that

a lawyer accepted about 4 years

ago. Unfortunately, shortly

afterwards, I got into a car

accident and trusted the lawyer, so

I retained him for my personal

injury lawsuit. He was happy.

Within a month of retaining him for

the personal injury lawsuit, he

called&said, I can't represent you

for the discrimination lawsuit

anymore, it is not worth it, but I

can do the personal injury. I said,

take both or none, he chose none,

reluctantly. I don't know if he put a

lien on the personal injury lawsuit,

he didn't with the discrimination

lawsuit.

I then retained our family attorney

of about 20+years. He has had

some staffing problems and it has

been almost 4 years and still no

settlement. I keep calling and he

says, nothing good on the table.I

found out the hit-and-run driver's

insurance co.had been subrogated-

no motivation.I'm afraid he has a

lien&doesn't care anymore.I need

the$, so I have to get a loan.What

should I do?What lawyer would

accept the case with 1, or maybe 2

lawyers with liens?thanks


Asked on 10/27/08, 12:10 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Terry A. Nelson Nelson & Lawless

Re: Personal injury lawsuit and liens

For starters: If you had a lawsuit filed on either case four years ago, they would have been either settled, gone to trial or dismissed by the court for failure to prosecute. In CA, any case filed has to be tried or settled within one year. If they weren't filed, it is likely too late to do so. You may have a legal malpractice case for failing to file. Feel free to contact me to discuss your rights and remedies if you wish to pursue this.

IF the PI case was still viable, then you would have some trouble getting an attorney to take it with two liens, but not impossible.

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Answered on 10/27/08, 4:43 pm


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