Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

Re: How to split legal fees when changing lawyers

You are confusing 2 disting types of retainer relationships. On contingency retainers (where the lawyer gets paid out of the funds of settlement, traditionally the fee is 1/3 of the funds from the settlement), however not all legal work is done on a contingency basis.

Many legal retainers are contracted at an hourly rate and you pay the attorney (or attorneys) for the work done regardless of the settlement at the agreed to rate. In these type of cases it is conceivable that an attorney will earn more than the client will receive (As would always be the case if the client loses at trial).

Of course in hourly rate retainers the attorney is not entitled to collect anything out of the settlement proceeds, his fee is strictly paid as a result of the hours expended in labor.

If you have any questions about your billing arrangement you really should talk to your lawyer.

Should you like to discuss this or any other legal matter, you can e-mail me for more information about low cost face-to-face, on-line, or a telephone consultation with a lawyer in our office.

Re: How to split legal fees when changing lawyers

Usually the 1/3 goes all the way around...but see your retainer agreement.

Good Luck

RRG

Re: How to split legal fees when changing lawyers

It is generally up to the attorneys. Contingency fees are not available in all situations, either.

If this was a persoal injury case, the customary

split is the referring attorney gets 1/3 of the

fee. If it isn't a referral situation, but the second attorney still did more work then the first, that's the way it would be done.

However, if it isn't a contingecy case, and your retainer was on an hourly basis, you owe each attorney the amount that they vharged for the time spent working on the case.

Re: How to split legal fees when changing lawyers

You need, first of all, to look at your retainer agreements with each lawyer. Are they for a contingent fee? Typically, a contingent fee is 1/3 of the net recovery (after deduction of disbursements) but the proportion varies from case to case depening on its nature. If both lawyers have identical contingent fee arrangements with you, they would share, not take a cut for each take .

On the other hand, many lawyers don't take a business fee on a contingency basis. Read the friendly retainer.

If the retainer agreements are different for the two lawyers (unless the difference is that the second retainer explains how fees will be split or apportioned between the two lawyers), or if you have a retainer agreement with one but not the other, things get real complicated. Post another question with those details and maybe I'll see it and respond again :-)

Finally, if you don't have a retainer agreement with either attorney, the fact that they been invoicing you for fees for some 8 years (I sincerely doubt you have $7700 in disbursements for a case of this size.) creates an implied retainer agreement at hourly rates, which means the attorneys do NOT get a cut of the settlement.

This post is not legal advice. If it were legal advice, it would come with an invoice. Neither does this post create an attornney-client relationship. To do that, you would have to sign a retainer agreement and, yes, pay even more fees, which may be completely unnecessary.