The Reluctant Jurist by Gene Grossman

Author:Gene Grossman [Grossman, Gene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9781882629725
Google: e-oPnQEACAAJ
Amazon: 1882629728
Barnesnoble: 1882629728
Publisher: Magic Lamp Press
Published: 2007-12-15T06:00:00+00:00

Stuart’s investigation isn’t the only thing that’s going ahead smoothly. Morris Arthur’s jury trial is too. It only took a couple of days for the plaintiff’s lawyer to put on his case, and it looks quite typical. Each month the California State Bar sends out a publication to every member, and a popular feature in the back part of each issue is the list of attorneys who have been disciplined. The three most frequent complaints that clients make against their lawyers is failure to return phone calls, refusal to release files to the newly retained attorney, and refusal to refund retainer money after allegedly not performing the services they were hired to do.

The more serious complaints involve mis-handling of client funds, and that is what Morris Arthur’s trial is about.

The proper procedure when settling a personal injury case is for the attorney to have the client endorse the settlement draft and then deposit it an attorney client trust account. When the settlement funds have cleared the bank, the attorney is then supposed to issue checks from the trust account to pay off any medical or other liens occasioned by the injury, the legal fee, reimbursement for costs advanced, and then the remainder in a check that goes to the client. That’s where many problems occur. The client is rarely happy with the final check received.

No one likes surprises. Most of us get them when we make a purchase, finding out that extra charges are being added. A prime example of this is a cell phone bill. The company may offer a monthly plan for $29.95 per month that actually winds up being a bill for over forty dollars each month, with all those hidden charges added on – charges never mentioned in any of the phone company’s advertisements.

The same thing happens in reverse when a personal injury case is settled. The client may sign off on a three thousand dollar settlement expecting to receive a final check for at least one thousand dollars after the doctor and lawyer have been paid. When a final check for only two or three hundred dollars comes in, the client is justifiably upset, and in most cases it’s because of the lawyer’s failure to properly explain all the deductions that will be made.

In my own practice, I always made sure that not only did the client agree to the settlement amount, but they also signed off on the complete disbursement list, showing exactly how much was being spent, who it was going to, and exactly how much they would be winding up with.

In the case that Morris Arthur is involved in here, he settled the plaintiff’s personal injury case for nine thousand dollars. The client agreed to the settlement amount, expecting to wind up with somewhere around three thousand dollars.

Unfortunately, attorney Arthur never showed the client a disbursement list that list included Arthur’s forty percent fee of $3, 600, one doctor’s lien of $3,200, a specialist’s consultation fee of $500, a private investigator’s fee

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