Collecting from Lawsuit and Lawyer Issues

First, none of you will believe me when I say this isn't my problem once I start referencing that it is a friend of mine. I don't care if you do think it's me, honestly, but figured I would see if anyone could share some thoughts as to what to do in this case.

The basics: her car had mechanical issues. Paid to have it fixed by a a mechanic. They f'd it up and wouldn't do anything about it. She lawyered up. Won the case this past May or so. Judge ordered them to pay for the car, and for violating some state law. Settlement ended up being for $12k or so, I believe.

Since then, she still hasn't received anything. What's worse is that the lawyer will not respond to her calls or emails.

She's paying off college loans and working at a job that wouldn't require any sort of degree just to have a paycheck, lives with friend's parents (i think they drop off/pick her up from work) because of some sort of screwed up relationship with her parents, had major surgery (1 week in hospital) before the verdict, and has had to since then, as well (nearly 1 week inpatient). Fortunately she was able to work out a plan with her doctors to get that taken care of over time.

Yes, sob story, wah wah, but she doesn't have a lot of help from anyone with this. This is about as much as I want to get involved... just offering her some suggestions as to what she can do. Parents don't seem like they will help, and her bf is in the army, stationed several hours away, so he can't/won't do much either.

Some things I thought would be to call every 15 minutes from now til whenever to finally get the lawyer to call back, but that would probably just piss off his secretary. Waiting outside his office in the morning or in the office all day might also work, but with no car that would be difficult.

So, suggestions?

mrredskin said: What's worse is that the lawyer will not respond to her calls or emails.

Her lawyer doesn't respond? If so, contact the state bar.

If it's the defendant's lawyer, she should have her own lawyer contact the other lawyer and guide her through this.

Does she have an outstanding bill with the lawyer she hasn't paid?

If he has a judgment for 12K he would likely be happy to enforce it for her for 30-40%.

I think she might not be telling you the whole story.

BillRHIT: I would assume that if she had an outstanding bill with the lawyer it would be taken out of the settlement? I really have no idea since I've never had to do that. You're right, she might not be telling me the whole story.

theman2: I agree with you when you say he probably hasn't been paid, either. "Doing whatever is necessary" is part of why I wrote this: to find out what exactly can be done to get that, also. No clue if he has deemed it unable to be collected.

It was best she got a lawyer. just trust me on that one!

the reason she doesn't do any of what you suggested is because she doesn't have a clue about it. no contact with the shop, and i'm not sure what D&B is, myself.

scrouds said: She's leading you on with a sob story and probably a flip of her hair and accidently leaning over to pick something up. I mean I think its really nice of you to help her get her money so she can spend it on her bf and maybe a small boob job.

she would spend it on a car to actually get her places and to start paying off all her loans, asshat. go troll somewhere else

I call shenanigans. the girl is playing you. I agree with scrouds on this one. How much money have you given her? How much has she asked for?

Sounds like one of my "friends".

If her name is Jackie, then ya. She's playing with you.

Google for a local bar association (in the county or city). For example, the Cincinnati Bar Association is the local bar association where I live. The local bar association should have someone to talk to about complaints against local attorneys. You can also check with a statewide bar association (Ohio Bar Association here) for filing a grievance. And the state supreme court should have a disciplinary board or commission that you can lodge a complaint with. Check the websites and you can figure out how your state operates.

bigdaddycincinnati said: Google for a local bar association (in the county or city). For example, the Cincinnati Bar Association is the local bar association where I live. The local bar association should have someone to talk to about complaints against local attorneys. You can also check with a statewide bar association (Ohio Bar Association here) for filing a grievance. And the state supreme court should have a disciplinary board or commission that you can lodge a complaint with. Check the websites and you can figure out how your state operates.

That's really interesting. I'm an attorney in Georgia, and our local bar associations are little more than clubs, where local attorneys can meet other local attorneys. The only bar that has any power or services here is the state bar, which also runs the fee dispute arbitration program (given the authority by the state supreme court).

So even though Cinci said this, let me reiterate that contacting whichever bar has the dispute resolution systems in place is definitely the way to go. I've been harassed by annoying clients (albeit ones whom I'd given no reason to harass me), and it never got the desired reaction out of me.

JMar99 said: bigdaddycincinnati said: Google for a local bar association (in the county or city). For example, the Cincinnati Bar Association is the local bar association where I live. The local bar association should have someone to talk to about complaints against local attorneys. You can also check with a statewide bar association (Ohio Bar Association here) for filing a grievance. And the state supreme court should have a disciplinary board or commission that you can lodge a complaint with. Check the websites and you can figure out how your state operates.

That's really interesting. I'm an attorney in Georgia, and our local bar associations are little more than clubs, where local attorneys can meet other local attorneys. The only bar that has any power or services here is the state bar, which also runs the fee dispute arbitration program (given the authority by the state supreme court).

So even though Cinci said this, let me reiterate that contacting whichever bar has the dispute resolution systems in place is definitely the way to go. I've been harassed by annoying clients (albeit ones whom I'd given no reason to harass me), and it never got the desired reaction out of me.

great info from someone in the profession. i didn't even know there were local bar associations like that. i just assumed it was all at the state level, originally. i'll check out our state's page or contact info tomorrow. as for harassing, i'm not sure she knows how to, especially when it comes to matters like this with no legal knowledge. JMar, would it typically take this long to get payment? I would think the lawyer would be wanting his share of the settlement at this point, as well.

Thanks for your input, too, SiS. Hopefully she'll have enough sense to document everything.

mrredskin said:
great info from someone in the profession. i didn't even know there were local bar associations like that. i just assumed it was all at the state level, originally. i'll check out our state's page or contact info tomorrow. as for harassing, i'm not sure she knows how to, especially when it comes to matters like this with no legal knowledge. JMar, would it typically take this long to get payment? I would think the lawyer would be wanting his share of the settlement at this point, as well.

Thanks for your input, too, SiS. Hopefully she'll have enough sense to document everything.

The most important question here is whether the judgment has been paid to the attorney. If he's been paid by the mechanics, he should have turned around and paid your friend almost immediately.

It's possible that the mechanics simply haven't paid it yet, and this attorney doesn't think that "collections" is part of his job responsibility; some attorneys put in their agreements that their job is to litigate, not to collect once the judgment has been reached. Maybe she hired the attorney on an hourly basis, the mechanic hasn't paid, she hasn't paid, and he is refusing to go through the collections process until he is paid what he is owed to this point.

Following up on what kenmoreland said, and I should definitely clarify, in Georgia at least, filing a formal grievance is NOT the first step. The Bar has a Consumer Assistance Program that tries to resolve everything informally before a grievance is filed. I don't think there's any harm in contacting a similar program instead of writing a letter, especially if prior to this, they've regularly communicated by phone, and his ignoring her is a recent phenomenon. She's tried to contact him for awhile and he's not returning calls; one call from the Bar should get answers right away.

FYI, the #1 cause of grievances is lawyers simply failing to properly communicate with their clients.

BTW, you can also look this attorney up on the bar website, see if he has any past grievances or punishments.

(Sorry if I wrongly assumed the lawyer is a male; I enjoy pronouns.)

Is her lawyer a sole practitioner or is he/she with a firm? If the lawyer is with a firm, is he/she a partner or an associate? If the latter, particularly if the lawyer is an associate, your friend should ask to speak to the managing partner of the firm or at least another partner. If connected to another partner at the firm, she should ask him or her to do something about her lawyer's refusal to communicate with her about the status of her case and that she is calling that partner out of courtesy, as her next step will be to file an ethical grievance against both her lawyer and the firm, but she wanted to try one last time to get things straightened out without having to resort to that drastic of a step. That will show the partner she is being reasonable and unless that partner cares nothing at all about professionalism and his/her firm's reputation, that partner will immediately light a fire under your friend's attorney's ass.

If her lawyer is a sole practitioner or she speaks with another partner at the firm without any results, she should find out the specific name of the lawyer disciplinary agency for her state, call her lawyer's office and say that if her attorney does not speak with her within 24 hours and provide her with a detailed account of exactly what is going on to collect on her judgment, she will be filing a grievance/complaint against both him and the firm with [give exact name of state lawyer disciplinary agency]. Don't take "out of office," "on vacation," etc... for an excuse - the secretary can get in touch with the lawyer or else another lawyer at that firm and your friend should tell the secretary that. If that doesn't get results, then very likely the attorney has had some sort of psychological meltdown akin to a nervous breakdown and/or has collected from the defendant and misappropriated the funds, so she should then file the complaint or grievance.

You probably don't want to file the grievance first, without warning, as that might be crossing the proverbial Rubicon and may put the attorney in a position where he or she is going to be more concerned with covering his or her own ass than doing right by the client, which the attorney may no longer see as being the same thing.

Your friend should demand that her attorney do some sort of supplemental or post-judgment examination of the defendant and find out not only where the defendant banks (and garnish its bank account) but whether it has any regular contracts with regular payments that can be garnished. She should also insist that a judgment lien be placed, if one is not created automatically by the court's judgment in her favor. It may be that there was some delay waiting to collect on the judgment until after the deadline for appealing the trial court's judgment expired.

Most likely the attorney took this case on a contingency fee basis (a lot of states have consumer laws that govern cases like this and award actual statutory attorneys fees to successful plaintiff's attorney to encourage them to take these cases on a contingency fee basis). If not, the attorney's obligation to keep the client informed about the status of the case should trump his or her right to be paid (it really should only take one minute to say "As I told you, I'm not going to engage in collections actions against the defendant until you pay my bill"), and an ethical violation with regard to meeting obligations to the client may jeopardize the attorney's right to be paid by the client.

The people suggesting that a) the OP actually is the friend; and/or b) the OP's friend is somehow responsible for this problem are being dillweeds, should just stop spouting nonsense, and should find something more productive to do with their time.

Was the lawyer paid a fee or was he to be paid out of the settlement?

* If the lawyer was to be paid out of the settlement, you will receive your money once the lawyer gets around to collecting the money.
* If the lawyer was paid a fee, he is not going to do anything more unless you give him money.

mrredskin said: scrouds said: She's leading you on with a sob story and probably a flip of her hair and accidently leaning over to pick something up. I mean I think its really nice of you to help her get her money so she can spend it on her bf and maybe a small boob job.

she would spend it on a car to actually get her places and to start paying off all her loans, asshat. go troll somewhere else

Hmmm, we've denigrated to name calling already. Sounds like you've already proven your emotional attachment. She also needs a ride to the airport while you're at it for her trip to the caribbean. You don't mind, do you sweety?

JMar99 said: FYI, the #1 cause of grievances is lawyers simply failing to properly communicate with their clients.

Absolutely true. And she might not be dodging contacts, she might be busy, in trial, etc. She should have directed her secretary or office manager to reply to calls with a phone appointment and timeline for a return call, but the fact that she hasn't isn't a sign that she's actively trying to ignore your friend.

Also, if it's been a few weeks since the judgement, that might be the ordinary time period to get a check cut to the lawyer. Then once the check is issued, your friend's gotta meet with the lawyer to co-endorse it, then AFTER THAT the lawyer needs about a week to cut her a final check. (Trust accounting rules. Don't ask.)

mrredskin said: scrouds said: She also needs a ride to the airport while you're at it for her trip to the caribbean. You don't mind, do you sweety?

no

Thanks, you're a doll. ::smooch::