Legal Question in Personal Injury in Maryland
I am confused about how a lien works. I have read that few lawyers will take a case on which a lien has been filed, because it will mean working essentially for the lawyer who filed the lien but no longer has the case. But wouldn't the money toward the lien come directly from the client's recovery and not from the 2nd lawyer's profit? For example, if lawyer 2 is entitled to 30%, and lawyer 1 files a lien for 30%, wouldn't the client just receive a much lower percentage than if no lien had been filed? Would lawyer 2 receive any less money than if a lien had not been filed? Thank you!
2 Answers from Attorneys
When a client chooses to change lawyers, he or she is generally responsible for working out a payment arrangement with the first lawyer. If the first lawyer mis-handled the case, the client may not owe the lawyer anything. Usually, though, the first lawyer is entitled to be paid for the time he/she spent on the case on an hourly basis. That would be deducted from the client's share of any recovery obtained by the second lawyer. But the first lawyer would never be entitled to a percentage recovery if the case wasn't settled, because he never achieved that result.
Sometimes circumstances dictate that the second lawyer work out a fee-sharing arrangement with the first lawyer, especially if the first lawyer put in a lot of work on the case and it would therefore be impractical for the client to pay the first lawyer under the procedure described above.
I've handled a number of cases as a replacement lawyer and have never had a problem doing so.
Personal injury contingency fees are set in Maryland as 1/3 unless litigation is involved. If you are not satisified with the service of your attorney contact me to discuss your case.
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