View Full Version : Any good lawyers to help with a conflict of interest/fee dispute?!?
Is there anyone out here that can help with a conflict of interest/fee dispute I am having with my attorney?
A brief rundown: I was seriously injured in a auto accident at work. I hired the same firm for both the personal injury and worker's comp sides of the claim. Personal injury gets standard 33.33%. Work comp gets 20%.
At fault driver's insurance agrees to pay full limits of their client - it gets set aside in a trust fund until settlement with work comp insurance company because they have a legitimate claim to it due to medical fees paid by them. Settlement time comes with the work comp insurance company. W/C side of the firm (only) represents me during the settlement conference despite the personal injury limits being discussed as an integral part of the settlement. The W/C insurance co would not settle without the PI limits being settled as well. W/C attorney lets me settle while splitting the limits 50/50 with the W/C insurance co. I was under the assumption I would only pay the 33.33% of the 50% I received. Instead they charged me 33.33% on the full 100% of the limits, paid the W/C insurance company the 50% out of my leftovers, then charged me ANOTHER 20% on the same amount (the 50% of the PI limit) the W/C insurance company then paid me as part of the settlement. I was never advised during the settlement conference that I would be charged 33.33 on the full policy limits and therefore would be just plain stupid to not ask for the full 100% of the PI limit and just have the W/C insurance co pay me that much less on the W/C side of it, so I'm not charged twice by the attorneys.
Is this not a clear case of conflict of interest? Of course the W/C attorney would want me to get paid as much as possible, so he could get his 20%. I hire an attorney to represent MY best interests, not theirs. I also specifically hired attorneys for both W/C and PI from the same law office to avoid being charged twice on the same money.
Martinjmpr
09-02-2015, 12:50
Without seeing the contract you signed with the attorney it's going to be difficult to know whether they are out of line or not. Hate to say it but it doesn't seem like this is necessarily wrong to me. The total amount you got was 100% of the policy limit - the fact that the WC insurance company had a claim to some of that money doesn't change the fact that 100% of the policy limit either went to you or went somewhere (the WC insurance co.) on your behalf.
I guess the best way to analogize would be like this: Adam owes Bill $100. Adam has an insurance claim and I represent Adam in that claim. As a result, Adam gets a $200 insurance payout but it's already been agreed between the 3 of us that Bill will get his $100 out of that pot of money. Even though you only put $100 in your pocket, the fact is that my work got you $200, and I should be able to charge you a fee based on the total amount I got you, shouldn't I? After all, Bill isn't going to pay me (and I assume the WC insurance company isn't going to pay YOUR lawyer.)
Hindsight is 20/20 but I'd have to say that it might have been better to handle these as two separate matters. At the very least it would have been easier to understand where the money was going.
You need to chat with another lawyer. My understanding is that if policy limits are paid, then secondary insurance has no claim because your were not "made whole". My situation was a bit different ( my health insurance company trying to get part of my settlement from the at fault driver's insurance company), but I would think the same principle would apply.
Great-Kazoo
09-02-2015, 15:12
The real question is. Did you receive a check[s]. If so did you sign and cash them? Unless a good attorney says differently you're SOL. That check being cashed was your acceptance of said settlement.
colorider
09-02-2015, 15:33
I may have some professional advice for you from a highly regarded retired workmans comp lawyer. I have sent your statement to him and am waiting for a reply.
Monky may be able to give you some direction here. As could some other members. I have zero work comp experience.
TFogger, I believe your situation was different.
VDW... I work for a firm. So I may be able to shed some light... hopefully, we didn't handle this and we can discuss that privately if need be. I'm not an attorney so this is not legal advice. I did just ask our WC atty your question however(WC is a strange strange thing), and without knowing limits and what not.. a lot can't be known. Ps - it's a trust account not a trust fund.. basically it's just a separate account from the firms working account to hold settlement funds till they are dispersed. No interest is earned. So the trust account is where the firm gets paid from as well.
Basic run down:
WC has a subrogation right to your settlement from your PI.
Policy limits (I'm guessing they were state minimums? $25k)
If WC lien was higher than policy limits then they likely took half of the PI settlement. Which in most cases WC has to give permission to settle for limits. Typically they would settle for 1/3, unless the lien is high.
If you want to provide me with any numbers privately, I can probably get you a better answer.
The 33.33% would come from the full settlement amount, not just what you recover from the settlement.
You should seek advice from another attorney however, if you do not feel you were done right. There could possibly be other avenues to explore. Such as UM/UIM claims on your personal insurance. Not sure how that would work from being in a work vehicle though.
You need to chat with another lawyer. My understanding is that if policy limits are paid, then secondary insurance has no claim because your were not "made whole". My situation was a bit different ( my health insurance company trying to get part of my settlement from the at fault driver's insurance company), but I would think the same principle would apply.
Your's is indeed different than WC provider having subrogation rights... I'm guessing the at fault had a min policy as well on yours (people really should carry higher limits with the cost of health care, 1 ER trip can hit $20k quickly), hopefully you had UIM coverage on your own policy. If I remember correctly your last accident was bad...
Thanks for the many replies.
I think we've come to agree that they should have warned me about paying double. The W/C company didn't care where the money came from. I should have been told during the settlement at the very least that I was paying the 33% of the PI limits regardless of how I settled. In this case I would know I was not only paying 1/3 on the 1/2 limits I was getting, but also the 1/2 limit I was giving away. The W/C co would have agreed to letting me keep the full policy limit and just payed me the 1/2 policy less on the other end. In my mind there is a clear conflict of interest for the W/C attorney to not make this clear and let me pay twice on that money.
Monky, PM inbound
Your's is indeed different than WC provider having subrogation rights... I'm guessing the at fault had a min policy as well on yours (people really should carry higher limits with the cost of health care, 1 ER trip can hit $20k quickly), hopefully you had UIM coverage on your own policy. If I remember correctly your last accident was bad...
The other party's insurance in my situation was substantially more than minimums, which is a good thing because the Medical portion was almost $123K...
Martinjmpr
09-02-2015, 16:09
My first question should have been: Have you discussed this with your lawyer and if so, what did he/she say?
As a last resort, if you truly feel you were misled or mistreated you could always file a complaint with the state bar association. They take those complaints very seriously and the lawyer would be required to respond or face disciplinary action.
Again I would only do this as a last resort but it is an option that is available to you.
I will use generic whole numbers to illustrate my point:
Policy limit $100, split 50/50 with W/C ins co. I was unaware nor would I consider this $100 as given to me, but put in a trust account to decide who it belongs to. Merely released by the at fault driver's ins co so as to not be in "bad faith". In my mind, this would equal roughly $17 to the attorney, $33 to me, $50 to W/C.
W/C agrees to pay me the $50 back. In my mind this means another $10 to the attorney and $40 to me.
Total here for W/C = $0, my attorney $27, me $77. Follow me so far?
This is how they saw it:
Policy limit $100 = $33 to them, $50 to W/C, $17 to me. W/C pays the $50 back = $10 to them, $40 to me.
Total: W/C $0, my attorney $43, $57 to me.
Again, since I have hired them to represent MY best interests, I think they should have said during the conference "Hey, you're already paying us $33 out of the PI limit $100 regardless of how you word your settlement. You should tell the W/C ins co to just release their claim to the $100 and not pay you anything. The net result is the same to them, but it is going to save you a lot of money in fees from us."
Total here: W/C $0, my attorney $33, me $67.
Big differences to me here when you convert them into real world numbers.
A big thanks to Monky for talking to me about this and running it by his employer.
An update: It appears after a few heated phone calls/conferences, my attorneys will adjust their take to equal the middle ground position. This is equal to how I think they should have advised me during the settlement conference with W/C. Not as good as I thought I was negotiating with W/C, but I think a fair middle ground. I still have not received the actual checks, so I'm keeping my options open until then.
Thanks again to everyone for your prompt replies.
For anyone who is going through this now, or maybe in the future, I hope this helps you out.
The real question is. Did you receive a check[s]. If so did you sign and cash them? Unless a good attorney says differently you're SOL. That check being cashed was your acceptance of said settlement.
No, I walked out empty handed with my head burning...lol!
There could possibly be other avenues to explore. Such as UM/UIM claims on your personal insurance. Not sure how that would work from being in a work vehicle though.
For those of you in a similar situation, my understanding is Un-insured Motorist/Under Insured Motorist coverage on your personal insurance would cover you even in your work vehicle - talk to a lawyer. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but that is what my lawyer told me. So if you drive for a living, I would suggest getting as high a UM/UIM policy as you can afford. I wish I had!
If you drive your own vehicle only? It's been a while since I've been in that side of insurance. I'll have to check.
Thank you for posting this, as I may need to adjust my own coverage.
Nah, it can come into play in other vehicles as well. The same way you can use a resident relative policy. Stack policies if more than one policy is owned... Lots of avenues
Sent by a free-range electronic weasel, with no sense of personal space.
That's what I was thinking after I posted. Just like MedPay right?
Now that I lost my career, maybe I need to go into insurance sales?? [Beer]
Or at least TV commercials. I bet the truck that hit you never told you that your accident was worth $700,000, but Jordan Levine did!
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