Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Michigan
Client sign over settlement check?
My daughter was recently divorced in MI. They had no children. My ex-son-in-law issued a cashiers check payable to my daughter as the settlement. He gave it to his lawyer who sent it to my daughter's lawyer. My daughter has paid all required attorney fees to her attorney and owes no one else. Her attorney told her he has been already paid in full and she owes him no further money. But he said he wants her to go to his office and endorse her settlement check over to him because he wants to deposit it in his client trust account. He claims that right then and there he would issue her a check from his client trust account in the same amount of the cashiers check her husband issued her. My daughter is suspect of this when the cashiers check is already made out solely to her. The final decree has been issued and there is nothing else on the docket, so why would the lawyer want to do that? This does not sound sensible to me, either.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Client sign over settlement check?
A lawyer is required to deposit the money into his client trust account if he takes possession of it.
However, what he's asking doesn't make sense since the check is made out to the client and all he has to do is deliver it.
The most he should do is require her to sign an acknowledgement that she received the money. She should go get the money right away and not pay a penny for the delivery service.
It may be that he wants to create a paper trail to pad his bill, but don't presume badness,--just go get the check and be done with it!
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