AboutDoctor Settlement Expertise 27 years of front line plaintiff`s trial lawyer experience in PERSONAL INJURY INSURANCE CLAIMS. Along with other attorneys and insurance adjusters, we have created a website to help injured people settle their own personal injury claims. With the help from feedback from hundreds of satisfied members, www.settlementcentral.com has become THE AUTHORITY for Internet personal injury insurance claim settlements. I am humbled and honored if people can benefit from my experience and current volunteer work in helping injured people. I hope I can explain things in a manner that is useful for the questioner. If not, do not hesitate to e-mail me and I will take a second shot at it! Best Wishes for your physical and financial recovery.
Experience
Life Experience: 27 years of front line plaintiff's trial lawyer experience
Organizations: American Trial Lawyers Association (AAJ)
Washington State Trial Lawyers Association
Awards and Honors:
I am humbled and honored everytime I am selected to help injured people. And when people give feedback that they have benefited from my experience and current volunteer efforts, then that is a double honor and award for me.
Question Hello,
At this point I went through a mediation that involved...coercion,duress etc.and signed a amount far below anything I could have imagined. I requested my attorney to rewind this. Also asked Q&A's that resulted in his dissolving our attorney client contract. I am faced with a few choices. In an up coming hearing, I have yet to deiced a prudent course of action. My Q to you is if he has ended are attny/client relationship... and I agree to pay his Fee&cost under the condition that I want responsibility for negotiating the remaining funds. To satisfy/disperse my LOP'S/bills, etc. by releasing him with a legal release, or affidavit/document etc... Is this possible? Because my med. bills are triple digits. Also after say he or someone else disperses the money left I am still responsible for the unpaid balance. And I know who needs what and have already discussed this course of action with a few of the people involved. My hospital bill alone is 150k!!??
Look forward to your opinion,
Kindest Regards... Bob
Answer Hi Bob,
I am sorry that your settlement efforts did not work out and it sounds like you have a lot on your plate right now to fix. It sounds to me like you were not well served by your attorney and hence you need professional help to get his claws off of your award: do NOT pay him any fees until you get this reviewed. This is NOT the time to go it alone. You are WAAAAAY out of your league in this for the following four reasons.
First, NEVER agree to pay those fees—a new attorney will dispute them for you. The fact that he fired you before the case was completed to your satisfaction may be grounds to deny him a large portion of the fees.
Second, a mediation settlement CAN BE SET ASIDE if you have not signed an actual release. Third, even after signing, if no action has been taken to the detriment of the tortfeasor by your mediation agreement, a new attorney may be able to set aside that agreement.
Third, you are IN NO POSITION to try to get any more money on your own. If I were the adjuster faced with a claimant whose attorney just fired him, I would tell you to go pound sand before I paid you another dime. It just is NOT going to happen, especially after you already went through a mediation.
Fourth, disbursement in the face of the subrogation you imply can get you into a lot of trouble. Yes, YOU DO OWE ANY AND ALL UNPAID BALANCES, so you need to resolve this issue NOW. I believe your first attorney should have resolved ALL of these issues before he can claim one dime of fees allegedly earned.
Hence, if you have unpaid balances or subrogation that should be fought or if you feel your claim does have substantial value in excess of what you agreed to, then you MUST CONSULT another attorney. Let her decide what to do about the fees in claimed by the first attorney.
DO NOT AGREE TO PAY FEES TO THAT FIRST ATTORNEY, until you get the OK from the new attorney. My bet is that if the first attorney forced a settlement in order to get a quick influx of cash into his office, the new attorney will claim that his fees are NOT earned. He will be entitled to only part of those fees, and the new attorney and the old attorney will split the total fee on the case. You DO NOT PAY TWO FEES—you will pay only one contingency fee, and the two attorneys will split it.
By the way, on the off chance that your first attorney did not explain to you the issues in subrogation, here is an excellent insurance subrogation http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0459.htm introduction: fight insurance forced payback.
I trust that my time here has produced some information that has been of value to you, and thus I would respectfully request that you take the time to locate the FEEDBACK FORM on this site and leave some feedback for me.
