Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Connecticut
Responsibility to disclose fee sharing
My daughter got bit by a dog. Her mother, my wife, is talking to her brother who is a lawyer about our legal options. Specifically, should we sue, not sue, take an offered sum to cover medical expenses, etc. My wife's brother insists that we need to ''be taken care of by a lawyer''. He insists that he will find the ''right'' lawyer and refers us to one.
This lawyer, after discussing the case with us, explains to us that the referring lawyer, my wife's brother, is entitled to a commission for making the referral.
A few years later, the case is settled and the brother takes his cut of the commission. When asked by his sister ''how could you do this?'' he replies that his conduct was totally appropriate.
Was his conduct totally appropriate, as he characterized it?
Does he have a legal or ethical responsibility to disclose to us that as soon as he referred us to another lawyer he had a financial interest in the process or was this responsibility totally discharged by the second lawyer?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Responsibility to disclose fee sharing
I'm not a CT attorney and we do not take referral fees. Maybe they're allowed in CT, but it doesn't appear that your brother did anything to earn any part of the fee. At a minimum, your brother failed to fulfill a social and moral obligation to his family to disclose that they would be paying him, although I agree that you probably did need an attorney. You just didn't need to pay your brother for one.
Re: Responsibility to disclose fee sharing
Lawyers ARE generally entitled to referral fees.
You used his legal skills without paying for them, he's entitled to get a part of the recovery since he referred your BUSINESS to someone else.
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