Sometimes The Attorney Causes More Harm Than Help
One woman in her 60s has been paying her attorney a set amount every month for the past four years. The fee takes a huge percentage of the $101 monthly disability settlement she was awarded by the state compensation fund office. Another case in the same state, which was published in the newspaper, tells of a disabled miner who has been making monthly payments to his attorney for the past decade! The miner was awarded $134 each month. The lawyer takes a large share of it.
The problem is obvious, these folks can’t really afford to be paying these legal fees. The lady who was mentioned has a husband who is bedridden with cancer, so they live on a welfare check. The real problem of legal fees isn’t only one that applies to the poor. The middle class gets hurt by them, too.
Having property and money, with little governmental representation, has made the middle class a big target among lawyers, according to one author. Analyzing the situation would be interesting because, also according to the author, the middle class spawns the majority of our new lawyers.
Usually, lawyers fees are calculated on an hourly basis. According to lawyers, plumbers and doctors get paid for their work, so why shouldn’t they? Of course, there is no disagreement that attorneys should be compensated for their time, but the question remains: how much should they be paid in cases of workers’ compensation where the payments can last a lifetime? Some middle class clients have taken on lifetime payments for legal services rendered during their personal injury lawsuit, divorce proceeding, real estate transaction, and even drafting their Last Will and Testament.
There have been instances of attorneys who were appointed trustees of estates or trust funds, where they have stolen the money from the very people for whom they were to keep the money safe. Instead of stealing the money outright, they chose to impose huge fees for the service of maintaining the trust accounts. During a five year period of time, one partnership stole approximately 60 per cent of an estate worth six figures, and they called it “fees for services”. The court had ruled the man incompetent and unable to manage his own affairs, so the attorneys were appointed to manage them for him. This matter had a happy ending, with the partners being ordered to repay the moneys taken from the estate. Another lawyer, who many in the system thought was crazy, brought the case against the crooked lawyers. Other lawyers would have nothing to do with it.
Media sources make this issue worse. They don’t report on all of the court’s dealings. The media usually will not report what the lawyers are getting paid for the case, even though this information is readily available for them to see. Bar associations exert pressure, as well. They don’t want anything to come between the client and lawyer relationship currently in place. They also keep on the defensive about anything negative that may be said in the media about the legal profession.
Some lawyers will only take a percentage of the settlement as payment, though it is common practice to charge an hourly fee. The bar associations usually allow the imposed minimum fee agreements. This is known as a contingent fee. The lawyer will then get a percentage of the award, should the case be won. For personal injury and accident cases, these fees can range from 25 percent to 50 percent of the award amount.
This fee is purely an American invention, very much like poker. The majority of Europe disallows percentages such as contingency fees. Around 1848 is when the first contingent fees were put in action, and it was in order to help workers who received on the job injuries. These workers were unable to pay the lawyers fees, so the contingent fee would assure they were paid for their services.
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