Legal Question in Personal Injury in Georgia

Re: Injured in car accident

You probably have to pay two lawyers - possibly each 1/3. You'll probably end up with zero (unless you can get the lawyer to waive his lien on the file).

Re: Injured in car accident

Your attorney has a lien for the value of his or her services to date and any expenses he or she has incurred for you. If he has a contingent fee contract and has obtained an offer from the other side, he would have a lien for his fee percentage of that offer. If he has not obtained an offer, he might try to come up with a calculation based on an hourly rate for the time he has spent working on the case. I am often asked to take over cases when clients are not satified with another lawyer, though I accept only a small percentage of such "second hand" cases. (One notable exception was a recent case in which a previous lawyer had given upon getting more than $100,000 and I was able to get a jury verdict for $2.3 million, which is now on appeal.) In my experience, where suit has not been filed and the attorney has not gotten an offer in the case based on his efforts, it has been fairly easy to resolve such claims by payment of their expenses and perhaps a nominal amount of fee. Generally, those guys have not wanted to pick a fight with me. However, I hear stories about some lawyers who have been aggressive in trying to enforce liens on some basis other than results obtained through their efforts.