Legal Question in Personal Injury in Pennsylvania

Distribution of settlement between lawyer and client

In a Pennsylvania automobile accident, personal injury case settlement, how should the distribution of the settlement be calculated, between the fee due the representing lawyer, and what is due the client. In particular, monies from said settlement for recovery of the cost of medical treatment, due to client's resulting, injuries . If said client had been paying for their own, individual health care coverage policy,out of their own personal monies, for several years up to, including and after the time of the accident does their representing lawyer have a right to 50 % of all monies paid for these medical bills by clients insurance policy. Could it not be argued that since the client had been paying for their own, health insurance to cover any medical payments for any injury that he might incur; and since these injuries were clearly the fault of negligence of another; that the total amount of medical costs including what the health insurance policy paid should be returned to client out of settlement before representing lawyer calculates their 50 % fee out of remainder of settlement. For clearly, by paying the insurance premiums over several years,client did in fact pay for all medical. And have there been any such cases argued.


Asked on 9/09/04, 1:27 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Veronica Richards Richards & Kelly

Re: Distribution of settlement between lawyer and client

The distribution of settlement funds is determined by the written contract between the client and the attorney. Typically, the attorney charges between 33 and 40% of the total settlement. You may have available to you a fee dispute arbitration panel. In any event, the place to start is your written contract.

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Answered on 9/09/04, 9:20 am


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