A lawyer has charged a monthly fee of a sixty year-old woman for the past 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. In the same state, a local newspaper reports that a disabled miner is still paying his lawyer for a similar action that happened 10 years ago! The lawyer collects a big portion of the $134 the miner gets each month.
The sad fact of the matter is the people who are paying their lawyers can’t even really afford to do so. One case showed a couple who received welfare. The husband was bedridden because of his cancer. The real problem of legal fees isn’t only one that applies to the poor. The middle class gets hurt by them, too.
As pointed out in his book about lawyers, one particular author has stated that the middle class is the perfect target to victimize because they have money and assets but nobody to represent this class in the state legislature. The irony is that the majority of our nation’s lawyers come from middle class backgrounds, so perhaps they are subconsciously targeting the middle class with these high fees.
Hourly fees are charged by a lawyer. According to lawyers, plumbers and doctors get paid for their work, so why shouldn’t they? Of course lawyers should be paid. The real question is just how much they should get and how long the payments should be paid to them. Some middle class clients are making monthly payments for their lifetime based on large legal fees for their divorce, purchase of real estate, personal injury claim, and sometimes even to write their Will!
There are cases in which the monies belonging to widows and orphans have been taken by the very lawyers hired to protect them. Of course, those are the obvious ones, unlike those that rob you by charging large fees for their services. Charging over sixty percent of a six figure estate in five year?s time, a couple of legal partners got lots of money. They were assigned as trustees for the estate of a man whom the courts considered incompetent and unable to handle his own affairs. The partners involved in this case were ordered to make restitution to the estate for the monies they took. A different lawyer, who was regarded as a little odd, brought suit against the fraudulent lawyers. He was the only lawyer who would take 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. Bar associations aid in the hiding of such information. Bar associations actively promote attorney-client privilege and deter interference by third parties. If anyone dares to publish a negative report about any aspect of the legal profession, the bar association quickly responds.
Some lawyers will only take a percentage of the settlement as payment, though it is common practice to charge an hourly fee. One lawyer, in conjunction with his bar association, wants minimum fees applied to all cases. 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 contingency fee arrangement is an American invention. England and most of Europe do not accept this kind of arrangement, and will not allow an attorney to work on a case if their fee is based on the outcome. In 1848 many workers needed help getting money for their on-the-job injuries, and that is how contingency fee arrangements were started. Contingency fees allowed workers, who had no cash, to file a civil suit.
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