typeographic
Junior Member
New York
I think my Lawyer may have taken more then his share of my settlement. Let me explain. I had a lower back injury and lawsuit. The process took 4 years and we went right up to the day of trial. We had to settle. It turned out that my key witness during the 4 years of the trial did a few things that made him no longer a credible as a witness . Also , the private investigator got a few video snips of me. I was putting a nail in the trim on the front door of my house that came loose and me trimming some weeds in the back yard. My lawyer said that the video wasn’t too incriminating, but compounded my witness being a loser and had to settle the best we could.
Anyhow, my lawyer was hoping to get at least $300,000 for my suit, but we had to take $200,000.
My lawyer was very very pissed off ! He subtracted his 33% like he was supposed to but then I saw that he also subtracted another $20,000 for himself.
A year prior to the settlement I closed my workman’s compensation case for the sum of $60,000.
He claimed that he was subtracting a 1/3rd of that money for himself out of that money.
He had nothing to do with that case. I had a totally different lawyer for that case and that lawyer got his payment for the closing of the claim. The lawyer I had was a compensation lawyer and was in no way connected with my trial attorney.
I never confronted my lawyer about the $20,000 because he was so angry and made me feel like a heel that all this came down. But now that I’ve spoken to a few other people , the more I feel I was ripped off.
Thanks for any advice that you have for me.
P/s just this morning I emailed my lawyer requesting a copy of the settlement with the deductions and lawyer payouts. Im sure it will send up a red flag.
I think my Lawyer may have taken more then his share of my settlement. Let me explain. I had a lower back injury and lawsuit. The process took 4 years and we went right up to the day of trial. We had to settle. It turned out that my key witness during the 4 years of the trial did a few things that made him no longer a credible as a witness . Also , the private investigator got a few video snips of me. I was putting a nail in the trim on the front door of my house that came loose and me trimming some weeds in the back yard. My lawyer said that the video wasn’t too incriminating, but compounded my witness being a loser and had to settle the best we could.
Anyhow, my lawyer was hoping to get at least $300,000 for my suit, but we had to take $200,000.
My lawyer was very very pissed off ! He subtracted his 33% like he was supposed to but then I saw that he also subtracted another $20,000 for himself.
A year prior to the settlement I closed my workman’s compensation case for the sum of $60,000.
He claimed that he was subtracting a 1/3rd of that money for himself out of that money.
He had nothing to do with that case. I had a totally different lawyer for that case and that lawyer got his payment for the closing of the claim. The lawyer I had was a compensation lawyer and was in no way connected with my trial attorney.
I never confronted my lawyer about the $20,000 because he was so angry and made me feel like a heel that all this came down. But now that I’ve spoken to a few other people , the more I feel I was ripped off.
Thanks for any advice that you have for me.
P/s just this morning I emailed my lawyer requesting a copy of the settlement with the deductions and lawyer payouts. Im sure it will send up a red flag.