lawyer stealing our money??

[carbon]

we have reached a settlement in a long and frustrating case, but the problems wont end.
an easy defective equipment case has been destroyed by our own lawyer, yet the other side offered a five digit settlement so we took it because our lawyer urged us to. He was saying we will lose in court cause the judge hates him. (he did alot wrong in the case and the judge really was getting pissed with him.)
Anyway, during the settlement process our lawyer kept telling us that the defendants insurance will be paying off the defendant. In the final settlement agreement it was agreed only us would receive any funds. However our lawyer took it upon himself to place the check into his name. (which isnt really a problem, have done that before)
the problem is that we believe the check is for a much higher value than we are led to believe.
we think our lawyer made a deal with the other side to take the huge check and pay us our part and pass on the rest to the defendant.
they say the check is already written and refuse to provide a copy.
This was all 2 months ago.
So we told him we would like our name on the check and we will endorse it over to him.
so then he places an attorneys lien on the settlement funds.
Does that give him the ability to sign our name to endorse the check to himself??
Ive been told by another attorney that there should be no issue getting a copy, is that correct?
and today we called the insurance lawyer, and they said we cant see a copy because we are not entitled to see the account numbers......
Is there anything we should do now?
we just want our full insurance claim, they have no right to it. If anything we would like to know if they are getting paid.

thanks from Colorado!

 

[quincy]

we have reached a settlement in a long and frustrating case, but the problems wont end.
an easy defective equipment case has been destroyed by our own lawyer, yet the other side offered a five digit settlement so we took it because our lawyer urged us to. He was saying we will lose in court cause the judge hates him. (he did alot wrong in the case and the judge really was getting pissed with him.)
Anyway, during the settlement process our lawyer kept telling us that the defendants insurance will be paying off the defendant. In the final settlement agreement it was agreed only us would receive any funds. However our lawyer took it upon himself to place the check into his name. (which isnt really a problem, have done that before)
the problem is that we believe the check is for a much higher value than we are led to believe.
we think our lawyer made a deal with the other side to take the huge check and pay us our part and pass on the rest to the defendant.
they say the check is already written and refuse to provide a copy.
This was all 2 months ago.
So we told him we would like our name on the check and we will endorse it over to him.
so then he places an attorneys lien on the settlement funds.
Does that give him the ability to sign our name to endorse the check to himself??
Ive been told by another attorney that there should be no issue getting a copy, is that correct?
and today we called the insurance lawyer, and they said we cant see a copy because we are not entitled to see the account numbers......
Is there anything we should do now?
we just want our full insurance claim, they have no right to it. If anything we would like to know if they are getting paid.

thanks from Colorado!

It is not unusual for settlement amounts to be sent to the attorney and for the attorney to disburse the funds. Until the amounts are disbursed, the settlement money remains in an attorney's special account for you.

I am confused by your last sentence: "If anything we would like to know if they are getting paid." Who is "they?"

 

[carbon]

yeah we have had the money sent to his account before without a problem, and i understand that he can take the check and distribute funds, but not without our authorization. The settlement is ours, not his.
i want to know if our lawyer is sending money from our insurance claim back to the defendant without our authorization.
I want to know how much the check value of the insurance settlement is but i cant get it. we already have reason to believe it is for much more than we are receiving.
they refuse to send us any proof whatsoever.

the verbal agreement is that the defendant will receive no funds. but the settlement agreement overrides that and nobody will/can clarify. a copy of the check will end it, if the value is correct why wouldnt they just send it?

 

[LdiJ]

yeah we have had the money sent to his account before without a problem, and i understand that he can take the check and distribute funds, but not without our authorization. The settlement is ours, not his.
i want to know if our lawyer is sending money from our insurance claim back to the defendant without our authorization.
I want to know how much the check value of the insurance settlement is but i cant get it. we already have reason to believe it is for much more than we are receiving.
they refuse to send us any proof whatsoever.

the verbal agreement is that the defendant will receive no funds. but the settlement agreement overrides that and nobody will/can clarify. a copy of the check will end it, if the value is correct why wouldnt they just send it?

I really think that you are overreaching on this. I honestly understand your concerns if no one will tell you the grand total of the settlement, but the odds of any attorney being so unethical as to kick back money to the defendant is incredibly remote as that could cause them to lose their license to practice law. What motivation could an attorney possibly have to take that kind of risk?

Seriously, think about it? An attorney's career could last 40-50 years. Is your case really so valuable that an attorney would risk that career over your settlement?

 

[quincy]

yeah we have had the money sent to his account before without a problem, and i understand that he can take the check and distribute funds, but not without our authorization. The settlement is ours, not his.
i want to know if our lawyer is sending money from our insurance claim back to the defendant without our authorization.
I want to know how much the check value of the insurance settlement is but i cant get it. we already have reason to believe it is for much more than we are receiving.
they refuse to send us any proof whatsoever.

the verbal agreement is that the defendant will receive no funds. but the settlement agreement overrides that and nobody will/can clarify. a copy of the check will end it, if the value is correct why wouldnt they just send it?

You have a copy of the settlement agreement, correct, so you know what you agreed to settle for?

The attorney is getting paid a percentage of the settlement amount?

Were there any expert witnesses hired for the case that need to be paid from the settlement funds?

Why do you believe your lawyer would be paying the defendant anything out of the settlement funds? Have you asked your attorney about this concern of yours?

Although I don't know what exactly is going on with your settlement or the settlement money received, I imagine that your attorney is waiting for all of the expenses from the suit to be received and tallied. Your attorney needs to make sure that everyone gets what is owing them, including him and you.

A copy of the settlement check received may not be available for you to view because you might be upset with all that is received in the settlement that will not be going to you. There are often several disbursements made from the funds.

I can only guess without knowing the facts but I doubt if anything untoward is happening, because most attorneys are very careful when handling their clients' money. You should receive all that you are entitled to under the terms of the settlement agreement, even though it often takes time for the disbursement to be made.

Good luck.

 

[carbon]

Yes we have the agreement, and it says we are getting what we were promised but leaves them open.

No the attorney is half paid, he is still owed money. not with any percent, just being billed. there is no reason to believe we wont pay him. and we will.
the worthless expert has been paid

he has said some very odd things and some things that dont make sense. he told us yes, they are getting paid, then backtrack....
we have asked him directly about this and more than 12 times and he answers it as a no, but in a odd way every time. not in a for sure no. but
we asked for it in the agreement and he said we cant put that in there because the defendants lawyer is getting paid. then we said WHAT? and he backtracked and said the insurance is paying him direct, but an insurance lawyer told us insurance will not pay for attorney fees like that... just back and forth and will never give a clear answer.
then he told us the check must be in his name because the defendant doesnt trust us pass the additional funds to him... but there are not supposed to be any.
the defendant was demanding six figures during the settlement, then suddenly vanished. the insurance was afraid of losing big time and the only way that guy would go away is if he was getting paid. so we think they cooked up a plan to pay him off without telling us cause they knew we wouldnt agree to it.

we already know all the funds are going to him. we just want to know how much. and what we are signing away.

there is no reason to us why the check remains a secret other than it is too much.

 

[carbon]

I really think that you are overreaching on this. I honestly understand your concerns if no one will tell you the grand total of the settlement, but the odds of any attorney being so unethical as to kick back money to the defendant is incredibly remote as that could cause them to lose their license to practice law. What motivation could an attorney possibly have to take that kind of risk?

Seriously, think about it? An attorney's career could last 40-50 years. Is your case really so valuable that an attorney would risk that career over your settlement?

i hope you are right, and this will all go away.

he didnt want to go to court, he thought he would lose and didnt want to pass up a settlement.
plus didnt think we would ever find out.

 

[quincy]

Yes we have the agreement
No the attorney is half paid, he is still owed money. not with any percent, just being billed. there is no reason to believe we wont pay him. and we will.
the worthless expert has been paid. hired by our lawyer and wasnt even an expert or engineer in anything, it was tossed out.

he has said some very odd things and some things that dont make sense. he told us yes, they are getting paid, then backtrack....
we have asked him directly about this and more than 12 times and he answers it as a no, but in a odd way every time. not in a for sure no. but
we asked for it in the agreement and he said we cant put that in there because the defendants lawyer is getting paid. then we said WHAT? and he backtracked and said the insurance is paying him direct, but an insurance lawyer told us insurance will not pay for attorney fees like that... just back and forth and will never give a clear answer.
then he told us the check must be in his name because the defendant doesnt trust us pass the additional funds to him... but there are not supposed to be any.

we already know all the funds are going to him. we just want to know how much. and what we are signing away.

Is there any reason that you don't trust that your attorney is doing everything properly, other than you think some of his answers to your questions are "odd?"

You will eventually get a final accounting. It just takes time for funds to be collected and disbursed.

Here is a link to the Colorado Bar's Rule 1.15 on the safekeeping of clients' property (which includes settlement amounts received): http://www.cobar.org/index.cfm/ID/20472/subID/22389/CETH/

Good luck.