I just overheard a conversation tidbit that made me want to interrupt.<\/p>\n
But I didn’t. Instead, I’m reporting it:<\/p>\n
A young woman was cheerfully telling a guy that she had sued someone for $1.5 million. The word “malpractice” was mentioned. The guy murmured some sort of congratulations about the amount.<\/p>\n
“Well,” she said, “the lawyer gets twenty or thirty percent, so I won’t get the whole amount, but it’ll be enough to buy me a small condo.”<\/p>\n
Um, what? First, although she did understand that her case was on contingency, i.e., the lawyer paid the expenses and got a percentage of the final award or settlement, unless her retainer with the lawyer is idiosyncratic, her lawyer will probably get 33-1\/3 percent, not thirty, and only after he gets all his costs and expenses paid back.<\/p>\n
And didn’t her lawyer explain the difference \u2014 often vast \u2014 between the amount of money you ask for in a legal complaint and the amount of money you might actually get? And how long it takes to get it?<\/p>\n
Apparently not. Or the lawyer did and the client wasn’t really listening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I just overheard a conversation tidbit that made me want to interrupt. But I didn’t. Instead, I’m reporting it: A young woman was cheerfully telling a guy that she had sued someone for $1.5 million. The word “malpractice” was mentioned. … Continue reading