It's not unheard of here for you to give part of your fee to your client . There is case law on it here.
Owen and Galloway v. Travelers Ins. Co. 499 So. 2d 776, 777 (Miss. 1986) The trial in the district court resulted in a jury verdict in the sum of $45,000.00. Travelers had paid $24,590.79 to Walker in workers' compensation. Under Section 71-3-71, Mississippi Code Annotated (1972), cost of collection, including attorneys fees, are to be recovered first, then the workers' compensation carrier recovers lien and any remaining funds to be paid to the claimant. In the instant case Owen and Galloway, through their employment with Walker, charged him fifty percent (50%) of the amount of the recovery and eventually Travelers recovered the sum of $18,882.95. Then Owen and Galloway paid unto Walker $11,420.55 or one-half (1/2) of the attorneys fees they had charged him so that in essence Walker would attain some recovery from his third party action and Owen and Galloway received 25% of the judgment rather than 50%. At the conclusion of the action in the Federal District Court Owen and Galloway filed a claim against Travelers in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Harrison County, Mississippi, seeking an equitable recovery for legal services performed on behalf of Travelers. The action in the state court is not based on the language of Section 71-3-71, Mississippi Code Annotated (1972), but on theories of equity and it seeks to apportion the fees and costs which accrued in the third party action.
Let's say you reduce your fee to put more in your client's pocket? Under a strict construction, didn't you just give fees to a non lawyer?
I wouldn’t fuck around with a child support lien. That sounds like a great way to find your ass in contempt.
Gallant Knight Do you know anything about McDonald Worley? They're trying to renege on a pre-lit settlement (in writing).
Beyond the legal ethics portion of it, why the fuck are you trying to help a guy dodge child support?
these folks get mad when we let the employer carrier in a comp case or the liability carrier in a MVA know about a child support lien. It's so frustrating. We tell them we have a legal and ethical obligation to let them know. Also, don't you want to get his lien paid off? It is growing with interest. You're going to have to deal with it at some point.
I think the argument is that it's not technically "sharing the fee." Your firm would recognize the full amount of the fee as revenue (and get taxed on the revenue). But what you decide to do with money after your firm has recognized it is up to you. If you want to donate it to the Red Cross, power to you. If you want to pay a bonus to employees, go ahead. If you want to gift part of it to your client, that's fine too.
I generally enjoy the substance of my tax-focused practice, but the biggest downside has to be that the week between Christmas and New Years is super busy given that my wedding anniversary is 12/21 and my birthday is at the end of December. Meanwhile, it seems like most of my friends are still on holiday
doctor i work with who brags about having a ton of $$ just asked if i could help him with two $10k loans he took out where he defaulted after like 2 payments. yay
UM is weird in Georgia. It's not really "add on" coverage, it's offset -- meaning that if you have $100k in UM and the tortfeasor has $25k, you only get excess coverage of $75k. Basically, your UM coverage starts at dollar 1 rather than tortfeasor's coverage + 1. But, yes, it can stack.
That offset is exactly how it works in MS. Also not sure if resident relative in GA extends to only immediate family. Client lived with a 2nd cousin that has I think $100k in UM stacked (still looking into the exact amount of coverage) . Guessing a 2nd cousin isn't going to qualify as a resident relative. Never looked into the issue of how far of distant relation resident relative extends.
I bitched and moaned about moving to Case Text from West Law but it hasn't been that bad. West Law is just absurdly expensive for a small firm.
Its taken some junior lawyers copied on emails with me some time to figure it out, but they are now responding to all inane client inquiries this week
Apparently I won’t be able to sandbag any fees to carry them into 2021 and start the year with a bang. Very sad about this development.
Yeah, I know. That was a quick answer. I should've been more clear that most is offset rather than excess and excess is a separate coverage. Here, and in the majority of jurisdictions, all UM is treated as excess coverage.
Insurance company just got fined and sanctioned here in MS on a WC case for some sketchy ass shit. Judge ordered that claimant be sent to the first available doc at an ortho clinic and not specifically to one doc or another , for the specific purpose of not doctor shopping. Carrier went behind the judge and claimant lawyer's back and tried to funnel a claimant to a favorable doctor against the express order of a judge. In fact , when an appointment was made with a doc they didn't like at the clinic , they unilaterally canceled the appointment and set up an appointment with a super conservative doc at the same clinic that they wanted the claimant to see. Emails were produced where the adjuster is telling the nurse case manager to get the claimant to a doc that will "kick him to the curb." Judge fined the carrier $5,000. Wish it had been $5,000,000.
$5,000 isn't nearly enough of a deterrent to prevent them from doing that in the future. They'll gladly pay the $5,000 because the difference between getting a conservative doc on most claims is worth way fucking more than that. God I hate the WC system.
What ever will they do now that they’ve been fined $5000 poor comp carrier I don’t think monetary sanctions do a fucking thing. I don’t want the $2500 for having to file a motion to compel, I just want the discovery and a strict scheduling order.
They don't do anything. I've nailed one adjuster for assessed fees on four cases the past two years totaling like $17,000 and he still pulls the same shit and hasn't learned a damn thing.
True. I guess it's "I'd rather pay you [after making you bid against yourself along with all the other defense firms until your hourly fee is $130] than pay them." Spoiler Let's also not talk about what legal bill review is going to do to your bill. Thanks.
Three mediations this week. I am pooped. Same stupid arguments and BS, different cases. I think i'm going to take off the rest of the week.
I guess all I can hope for at this point is that it gets bad enough to where workers' comp departments don't see the point in paying the competent defense attorneys very well and the ones that are all left are the idiots. The downside to that is that the idiots are less professional, don't realize they're idiots, and then end up taking stupider and more frustrating positions. So idk...I think it's just going to suck from now until the end of time.
Don’t even get me started on this bullshit. I almost exclusively do med mal defense work and one of our carriers has decided that we’re not allowed to do any more than 3 hours of research per month on any case without prior approval. And that’s medical and legal research combined, not apiece. It’s absolutely fucking ridiculous when you’re handling complicated cases dealing with medical and scientific issues that you’re learning as you go.
I have a carrier I do coverage work for that has the same rule. It's unreal. I just get permission from the outset.
We’ve worked all week and will be open for most of tomorrow because my partner (controlling vote) is an asshole. I think the phone rang 3 times total this week and one of them was a courtesy call.
Oh that’s the supposed plan. But my partner is a certified workaholic, and I wish I was exaggerating. He gets visibly anxious whenever there’s an early closure and 12:00 soon becomes 4:30 because of all the “just one more thing and we’ll get out of here” moments he’ll have. I don’t give a flying fuck about it for me because I’ll walk out whenever I feel like it, but he acts like a baby back bitch when I leave him alone and it’s not fair to the staff.