subject: Protect Yourself From Lawyers: Principle And Agent Theory [print this page] One sixty-year old woman has been paying a set amount to a lawyer for the last four years. She filed a claim with the state compensation fund office and the attorney helped her win her case to receive a $101 monthly disability payment.
Another lawyer has collected a monthly payment from a disabled miner for the last ten years. The miner was awarded $134 each month. The lawyer takes a large share of it.
These aren't the only cases like them that illustrate the detriment of legal fees. In one case, a woman and her husband were receiving welfare.
He was bedridden because of his cancer. Poor clients are not the only ones with difficulty paying legal fees. It riddles the middle class wallet, as well.
One book about lawyers states that the American middle class is the hardest hit by lawyers fees because they not only have the money, they also have no power when it comes to state legislatures.
The middle class is also the one what spawns the majority of new lawyers. The book's author wonders what this says about us psychologically.
Lawyer's fees are determined by an hourly rate. The reasoning behind this is that everyone else who provides a service to citizens is paid by the hour, so why shouldn't they?
Of course there is no one who thinks lawyers should provide their services for free, but the issue is how much should they be paid and for how long? Lifetime payments from clients are not unusual for divorces, injury suits, will probates and real estate investment.
Widows and orphans have become the victims of lawyers who have taken the very money they were hired to protect.
Some lawyers don't actually steal the money; they just charge exorbitant amounts for their hourly fees.
The legal fees for one lawyer and his partner added up to almost 60 percent of a six figure estate in a period of five years.
The case was from the estate of a man who was ruled unable to tend to his own affairs. The good news in this case was that the lawyers were made to pay back the money they had taken.
A different lawyer, who was regarded as a little odd, brought suit against the fraudulent lawyers. Other lawyers refused to get near the case.
The media essentially contributes and encourages these improper and unethical dealings by only superficially treating the court system and the information as news sources.
Local courts make information on how much the guardians and lawyers are paid easily available. Yet, it isn't generally reported.
And the bar associations do not discourage the behavior. They are vehemently against any kind of regulation of the client/lawyer relationship.
Whenever the legal profession comes under fire in the media, they are right there protesting and denying any type of negative relation to the legal field.
More lawyers are changing to the contingency fee arrangement rather than the generally accepted hourly fee arrangement. The bar association supports this arrangement, as well.
This is the contingent fee. This gives the lawyer a portion of your award, if the case is won.
Twenty-five to fifty percent is the normal range paid in personal injury suits.
This kind of fee is a purely American creation, just like poker. Europeans are not fans of contingency fees, and won't allow them.
Contingency fees first were used to help injured workers in the 1840's. They didn't have any money to file a civil suit, so the contingency fee solved the problem.
