Legal Question in Personal Injury in Illinois

Re: Injury Case

if you have a contingent fee contract, it likely contains a clause that allows your current attorney to assert a lien on your case. The amount of that lien is not clear. usually it is the costs that the attorney has incurred in your case plus a reasonable fee for services rendered thus far.

Re: Injury Case

You have the right to discharge a lawyer at any time. In a contingency situation, the attorney is entitiled to an hourly fee based on quantum meruit, which is a fancy legal term for the attorney is to be paid an hourly rate that other attorneys with his experience and expertise would charge. In practice, the new attorney usually works something out with the discharged one concerning compensation and the timing of that compensation. Good luck.

Re: Injury Case

Regardless of whether there has been any collection of moneys made, the current attorney has a lien which will have to be satisfied. That is, any eventual settlement check will have his name on it and so you have to deal with him in some way. Under the law, he is entitled to all the cost advances he has made and an reasonable value of the work he has done based on a reasonable hourly rate.

The case file is yours and has to be handed over to you. However, you must pay for copies of anything that the lawyer has paid for and is part of your file. He does not have to hand over everything. His notes, his research, his investigation and all that are his to keep and not yours.

I hope this helps-