Legal Question in Personal Injury in Massachusetts

That fee seems excessive. Additionally, you would have had to consent to such a fee arrangement. I would have an attorney review your fee agreement to determine its propriety.

This does not seem reasonable. You should bring your agreement to an attorney to help you settle this matter.

Your written contingent fee agreement with your lawyer (or lawyers) should clearly identify the percentage of "legal fees" payable as "compensation" to your lawyer(s) after recovery. Note that the amount/percentage of "legal fees" paid as "compensation" does NOT include any out-of-pocket expenses paid by your lawyer(s) on your behalf, which your counsel is also entitled to recover (on top of the agreed fee percentage).

That said, I don't believe attorneys are allowed to recover more than a total of 33.33% or 38% (after trial in some cases), even in the aggregate, regardless of what the fee agreement purports to say. In fact, I would be very surprised if your counsel is truly seeking to recover more (combined) than 38%, at most.

Check the terms of your agreement carefully and run the numbers, being careful to deduct from the legal fees amounts paid to your counsel for their expenses. It may be you were mistaken about the apparent double-dip.

However, if after reviewing the agreement it looks like a double-dip (or a fee percentage exceeding 33% or 38%, combined), you might ask the MA Bar Overseers if the combined percentage sought by your attorneys is legal or appropriate, regardless of what the fee agreement says.

Bottom line, an attorney cannot charge a larger fee than what the client agreed to in writing at the outset of the case. Usually 1/3 of the recovery, though some use various sliding scales. If your attorney brings another attorney into the case, or refers the case out to another attorney, the two attorneys simply SPLIT the originally agreed-upon fee among themselves. It does NOT increase the amount you pay, unless you specifically agreed to this.

Some exceptions arise when the work the other attorney does is not actually part of the original engagement. For example, if your attorney is handling a personal injury case, and either you or the defendant files bankruptcy, your attorney may have to retain a second attorney to handle the bankruptcy issues, and that is not necessarily a part of the original 1/3 fee deal.

You should definitely have an experienced lawyer take a close look at your fee agreement(s) and how your settlement money was disbursed.