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Terminated A Lawyer

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S

strickland

Guest
I terminated a lawyer who was handling my personal injury claim against the insurance of the person who rear-ended me. The reason I terminated him is because of the following reasons: 1) The lawyer never spoke to me personally to verify further information on the accident. 2) His presentation of the case (by letter) to the insurance was very weak, did not articulate well the crucial points of the case. 3) I was interviewed by his personal assistant who is not a para-legal (can tell by the way she conducted the interview) 4) The assistant nor the lawyer never returned call when I called and left a message.
All he has done was write the demand letter and a few phone calls to the insurance of the party at fault, had his incompetent assistant interviewed me and sent me papers to sign giving them permission to represent my case. The insurance, in response to his demand letter, offered a very small settlement based on the information provided by this lawyer.

I have advised the insurance that the lawyer is no longer handling my case but did not state the reason. Sent a copy to the lawyer in question.

In response to my notice terminating him as my representative for my case against the other insurance company, the lawyer wrote to the insurance company asserting a Lien for reasonable value of attorney's fees and expenses incurred in my claim pursuant to Siciliano v. Fireman's Fund (1976) 62 Cal.App.3D745, and requested the insurance that his firm's name be included in any or all drafts for settlement or satisfaction of jury verdicts and/or arbitration awards. He also mentioned: In Levin v Gulf Insurance, Cal.App. 4th, CalRptr. 2d (1999), the court held that "an insurance carrier and its attorneys are personally liable for disbursing funds to claimants and their attorneys without protecting the lien of the claimant's previous attorney that they knew".

My question is, could he be paid only for what he actually had done so far? First of all, I've never met him nor talked to him on the phone. He was not responsive to his client's phone call, and he employs very incompetent assistant who also started not calling back after the tiny offer of the other insurance. I had decided to represent myself and wrote a demand letter to the insurance. Just waiting for a response now. My other question is, shall I write a letter to the insurance and tell them the above reasons why I terminated him so they'll know what is the reasonable value due him not 1/3 of the settlement?

Please advise. In need of desperate help.


 


I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
strickland said:
I terminated a lawyer who was handling my personal injury claim against the insurance of the person who rear-ended me. The reason I terminated him is because of the following reasons: 1) The lawyer never spoke to me personally to verify further information on the accident. 2) His presentation of the case (by letter) to the insurance was very weak, did not articulate well the crucial points of the case. 3) I was interviewed by his personal assistant who is not a para-legal (can tell by the way she conducted the interview) 4) The assistant nor the lawyer never returned call when I called and left a message.
All he has done was write the demand letter and a few phone calls to the insurance of the party at fault, had his incompetent assistant interviewed me and sent me papers to sign giving them permission to represent my case. The insurance, in response to his demand letter, offered a very small settlement based on the information provided by this lawyer.

I have advised the insurance that the lawyer is no longer handling my case but did not state the reason. Sent a copy to the lawyer in question.

In response to my notice terminating him as my representative for my case against the other insurance company, the lawyer wrote to the insurance company asserting a Lien for reasonable value of attorney's fees and expenses incurred in my claim pursuant to Siciliano v. Fireman's Fund (1976) 62 Cal.App.3D745, and requested the insurance that his firm's name be included in any or all drafts for settlement or satisfaction of jury verdicts and/or arbitration awards. He also mentioned: In Levin v Gulf Insurance, Cal.App. 4th, CalRptr. 2d (1999), the court held that "an insurance carrier and its attorneys are personally liable for disbursing funds to claimants and their attorneys without protecting the lien of the claimant's previous attorney that they knew".

My question is, could he be paid only for what he actually had done so far? First of all, I've never met him nor talked to him on the phone. He was not responsive to his client's phone call, and he employs very incompetent assistant who also started not calling back after the tiny offer of the other insurance. I had decided to represent myself and wrote a demand letter to the insurance. Just waiting for a response now. My other question is, shall I write a letter to the insurance and tell them the above reasons why I terminated him so they'll know what is the reasonable value due him not 1/3 of the settlement?

Please advise. In need of desperate help.



My response:

Since you've already fired your attorney, this is really a moot point. While I believe your decision to do so was premature, anything I do say, you're bound to disagree, and not understand, or will be unwilling to understand. In other words, yours and my dialog will just turn into a spitting match. My point of view differs from yours, and from your post, I believe you were wrong. So, like I said, this issue is moot.

It makes no difference that you "never met him". An Attorney / Client relationship can be enforceable without an actual meeting. Under the California law cited, your former attorney is entitled to his "quantum meruit" attorneys fees, and any costs expended, because you fired him.

Good luck to you.

IAAL

[Edited by I AM ALWAYS LIABLE on 12-13-2000 at 05:43 PM]
 

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