Can I leave my contingency attorney???

[tesseract314]

What is the name of your state? Illinois. I have a question regarding a personal injury case that has partially settled. My spouse was hit by a car and nearly killed, and we sued the man that hit him and settled the case for about $90,000 of the man's $100,000 policy. The total damages of the case were estimaed at about $300,000, and we do have underinsurance coverage, and all evidence has at this point been collected. However, we are getting very frustrated with our attorney. He was somewhat expiditious with the initial settlement, but now that all treatment is done (this case has pretty much been dormant for 2.5 years while he finished medical treatment, with us only periodically updating the attorney at his request with new medical bills, etc.) we cannot get him to move forward with the settlement with the underinsurance company! He won't even return our phone calls/emails. My question is, since we signed up with him on a contingency basis, is there likely some clause that says if we pull out from his firm that they can suddently bill us for thousands of dollars that they have "worked" on this case since the first part of the settlement (since they won't get to collect on any part of the underinsurance settlement)? We would like to just find another attorney that could move this along. We want this to be over...it nearly destroyed both of our lives, and until this is settled we won't have true closure. But it's not worth it if, to go to another attorney, it suddenly is going to cost us some massive amount of money to break away from the first one. If that is the case and we can't leave him, are there any suggestions for getting him to move this thing along???? ANY help is greatly appreciated!

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? Illinois. I have a question regarding a personal injury case that has partially settled. My spouse was hit by a car and nearly killed, and we sued the man that hit him and settled the case for about $90,000 of the man's $100,000 policy. The total damages of the case were estimaed at about $300,000, and we do have underinsurance coverage, and all evidence has at this point been collected. However, we are getting very frustrated with our attorney. He was somewhat expiditious with the initial settlement, but now that all treatment is done (this case has pretty much been dormant for 2.5 years while he finished medical treatment, with us only periodically updating the attorney at his request with new medical bills, etc.) we cannot get him to move forward with the settlement with the underinsurance company! He won't even return our phone calls/emails. My question is, since we signed up with him on a contingency basis, is there likely some clause that says if we pull out from his firm that they can suddently bill us for thousands of dollars that they have "worked" on this case since the first part of the settlement (since they won't get to collect on any part of the underinsurance settlement)? We would like to just find another attorney that could move this along. We want this to be over...it nearly destroyed both of our lives, and until this is settled we won't have true closure. But it's not worth it if, to go to another attorney, it suddenly is going to cost us some massive amount of money to break away from the first one. If that is the case and we can't leave him, are there any suggestions for getting him to move this thing along???? ANY help is greatly appreciated!

The current attorney probably has an attorney's lien on any settlement made; if so, then you will really come out bad if you get another attorney at this late date who will also take a big chunk.

Do your best to settle your differences with your present lawyer.

 

[tesseract314]

Thanks. I just can't get him to reply to emails/messages. It's like he knows he has me hooked so I have to put up with him taking 3 months to return a phone call.

 

[seniorjudge]

Thanks. I just can't get him to reply to emails/messages. It's like he knows he has me hooked so I have to put up with him taking 3 months to return a phone call.

Camp out in his office.

Be sure to extinguish all campfires before retiring.

Dispose of waste properly.

And don't throw your butts in his potted plants (it really irritates him).

 

[tesseract314]

Do you really think it will come to that? I figured that since this guy stands to make somewhere between $20,000 and $66,000 (depending on how much it settles for) from the underinsurance claim he would WANT to get it done ASAP.

We gave him the final doctor's bills and medical records in August. Shouldn't we have heard SOMETHING by now? I mean, we haven't gotten an update, a phone call, etc. And it was already established that we had a valid claim against the underinsurance, because the medical bills WAY exceeded the amount of the guy's policy. Thanks for the advice and the humor.

 

[stephenk]

How can you have a claim for underinsurance coverage when you didn't settle the claim against the other driver for their policy limits? Was there another person injured in the accident that settled for the remaining $10,000 of the $100,000 policy?

 

[tesseract314]

I know right? Well, I think the way it worked out was that Geico (his insurance company) and our Attorney established that the case was worth more than the policy limit, but in order to expedite the settlement, we agreed to take the $88,000 while reserving the right to make an underinsurance claim.