Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Washington

Multi-Party Legal Fees

I am involved in a multi-party lawsuit (Plantiff) in which we all agreed to split legal fees evenly even though we all lost money to the defendant in different proportions. Now that we are finally at the settlement stage we are all arguing on how we should split the restitution. The restitution that the group will be recieving is less then our attorney's fees and our combined loss.

Because we are all paying equal fees does that entitle everyone to an equal percentage of the restitution?

Thanks!


Asked on 4/15/04, 12:06 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Dan Harris Harris & Moure, pllc

Re: Multi-Party Legal Fees

Were you all represented by the same counsel? Did each of you have your own counsel? Did some or all of you have no attorney? I believe there is no easy way to handle a situation like this, at this point. Though I am, of course, not fully familiar with the facts of your particular case, I can state that when I have represented multiple plaintiffs, we map out the sharing of any recovery BEFORE undertaking the litigation. The same is true where mulitple parties with diffferent counsel have agreed to work together. It is always easier to work out such an agreement before settlement, rather than after. Perhaps all of the plaintiffs in your case should retain a neutral arbitrator for a short (3 hours perhaps) arbitration to resolve the settlement distribution issue.

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Answered on 4/15/04, 10:19 am


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