Over the past four years, one sixty-year old lady has paid a monthly amount to a lawyer. 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. One miner, who was disabled, has payed his lawyer monthly for over ten years now. The attorney in question helped the disabled miner receive his $134 monthly pension.
These cases, though very common, show how legal fees are hard on the poor. The lady who was mentioned has a husband who is bedridden with cancer, so they live on a welfare check. Difficulty paying legal fees affect more than just poor clients. The middle class population is just as affected by the monthly fees the lawyers charge.
According to one author, because the middle class have a little money and they really have no power when it comes to things like legislative decisions, they have become one of the most common victims. What’s crazy about this fact is the middle class also produces most of our lawyers, which the author states should be subject to psychoanalytic interpretations.
Lawyer?s fees are determined by an hourly rate. After all, doctors and plumbers charge by the hour, so why shouldn’t attorneys? No one would say the lawyer should not be paid. But, how long is it fair to charge a percentage of the settlement? Some attorneys charge so much for divorce and probate services, real estate transactions, and personal injury cases that middle class clients are making payments for the rest of their life!
Some unscrupulous lawyers have even stole money from the widows and orphans they were hired to safeguard. 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. Having been ruled incompetent by the court, the owner of the estate did not manage 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 one who would take the case.
Newspapers and other media outlets also make this problem bigger because they only use the court systems as a source of content. The media won?t report the legal fees garnered by guardians and lawyers. This information is readily available from the court. Bar associations aid in the hiding of such information. Bar associations actively promote attorney-client privilege and deter interference by third parties. Should a story be reported that looks damaging to the law profession, they will quickly spring to action.
Though legal fees are usually determined by hours spent on the case, sometimes lawyers will only take a percentage of the award as payment. Whenever there are minimum fee agreements imposed, the bar association supports the attorney’s stance on the matter. This is called a contingent fee and awards the lawyer a percentage of the winnings, if the case goes in his or her favor. This contingency amount can be anywhere from 25 per cent to 50 per cent in personal injury and other tort cases.
This kind of fee is a purely American creation, just like poker. England and most of Europe have taken the position that the attorney cannot participate in a lawsuit if there is only an arrangement that the attorney is paid if the case is successful. The first instance of this contingency fee arrangement in the United States was noted in 1848, to assist workers injured while working. These workers had no money to hire legal counsel, so the contingency fee arrangement was created so the workers could begin a civil lawsuit.
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