Legal Question in Personal Injury in New Mexico
Should I send this to my lawyer?...
After speaking with you on January 16,2015 I referred back to our Fee Agreement dated April 28, 2014. As you indicated in our telephone conversation, it states that I have agreed to pay you one third of all sums recovered �after a lawsuit is filed.�
While I signed this document in good faith, I have my doubts as to whether it was delivered in good faith. In our phone conversation prior to the delivery of this contract, you indicated that you would reduce your compensation to a flat fee of thirty percent of any amount recovered, unless a suit was filed on my behalf separate and distinct from the mass tort action.
Although the agreement clearly states that your compensation shall be a full third of the settlement account �after a lawsuit is filed� it was my understanding at the time of our verbal agreement that you would accept compensation of thirty percent, unless you filed a lawsuit separate and specific to me. I believe that you knew, and had every intention at the time of our conversation in April of 2014 to add me to the mass tort filing. That was my understanding at the time of our conversation. Since we both knew that you intended to include me in the mass tort action, I cannot understand why you included the following in our contract; �As compensation for Attorney�s fees, I agree to pay 30% of all sums recovered by my Attorneys on my behalf before a lawsuit is filed�) unless it was meant to imply that a settlement may be reached without filing a separate and individual suite on my behalf.
I like to think that our verbal agreement was made in good faith, and I understand that our written agreement is binding despite our verbal agreement. Nevertheless, I prefer to appeal to your conscious and sense of fairness rather than appealing to the Bar Association.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Yes. It is always proper to be sure the attorney and client are on the same page concerning monetary items. Give her/him a chance to see if you can agree. If not, the State Bar of New Mexico has a fee dispute resolution process which is done at no cost and almost always gets the parties back to the correct agreement. No one gets in trouble. If all fails, perhaps you will want to seek out a different lawyer.
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