Questions
Injury date 12 1 2007 attorney worked on case 1 year obtained records. new lawyer filed suit settled in 2010 for 500,000. attorney has lien in contract. second attorney refuses to pay first attorney. can first attorney sue me?
Answer 1
Yes. The first attorney can file suit against both you and your new attorney to enforce his lien once he has complied with mandatory fee arbitration requirements.
The statute of limitations on a written contract is 4 years from date of breach, i.e., from when the case was settled in 2010 and the lien was not honored.
However, unless there is a disagreement between you and your attorneys regarding the total fee to be awarded all attorneys, the dispute between the attorneys should not impact your right to receive your contingency percentage of the settlement or involve you in fee dispute litigation.
In the event there is a dispute regarding the total fee, the attorneys' ethical responsibilities would still require that the undisputed portion be released to you. In a nutshell, the attorneys cannot hold your right to recovery hostage because they cannot agree among themselves regarding the division of the fee.
Your present attorney should hold all disputed funds in trust until the dispute regarding fees is settled. All undisputed funds should be released to you after all other liens are satisfied. Hopefully, there is no dispute as to the total fee to be charged so you do not have to be involved in fee litigation.
The statute of limitations on a written contract is 4 years from date of breach, i.e., from when the case was settled in 2010 and the lien was not honored.
However, unless there is a disagreement between you and your attorneys regarding the total fee to be awarded all attorneys, the dispute between the attorneys should not impact your right to receive your contingency percentage of the settlement or involve you in fee dispute litigation.
In the event there is a dispute regarding the total fee, the attorneys' ethical responsibilities would still require that the undisputed portion be released to you. In a nutshell, the attorneys cannot hold your right to recovery hostage because they cannot agree among themselves regarding the division of the fee.
Your present attorney should hold all disputed funds in trust until the dispute regarding fees is settled. All undisputed funds should be released to you after all other liens are satisfied. Hopefully, there is no dispute as to the total fee to be charged so you do not have to be involved in fee litigation.
Answer 2
This should not be an issue that you should have to deal with. The second attorney should work it out with the first attorney, and if they cannot resolve it, they should find a dispute resolution process to work out their problems. You should demand that your second attorney turn over the undisputed client portion of the recover to you if that has not already occurred, and to resolve the issue with the first attorney so that you are not embroiled in a lawsuit.
Keep in mind that if you were sued, you would not face the liability, but you would need to be named as a defendant because the first attorney had the contract with you. Any recovery should come from the second attorney's trust account.
Mr. Daymude is correct that the statute of limitations for a breach of written contract (which is the basis for the lien) is four years. We are both assuming you had a written agreement with the first attorney because we know it would have been wrong for the attorney to not have a written agreement. If, in fact, the first attorney did not have a written agreement, the statute of limitations is only two year.
Good luck to you.
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