November 4, 2015 Florida contingency fee appeal: lesson for probate litigators?

Sometimes, Florida probate litigators are asked to take a lawsuit on a contingency fee. Whether you should ask your Florida probate lawyer if a contingency fee makes sense is up to you and your probate attorney.  But note that in Florida most probate lawyers do NOT take cases on a contingency fee.  “How can I get a contingency fee for my probate case” is a good question, and is sometimes asked by family members or dis-inherited beneficiaries who don’t want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting to get their inheritance.  But what can probate lawyers or estate litigators Palm Beach learn from a November 4, 2015 2nd DCA opinion,Anderson v. 50 State Security Service, Inc.?

Does a Contingency Fee Make Sense?

• This recent contingency fee case is not a probate case but is instructive
• The WestLaw citation is 2015 WL 6735852 and the Florida appeals case number is  3D14-2540
• If your estate law firm Florida is taking cases on a contingency fee, you shouldconsider asking your probate client if they have had other attorneys and if those other attorneys have been paid.
• Why?
• Those prior attorneys may assert a charging lien on the recovery of your lawsuit
• Yes there may be other probate lawyers Palm Beach “standing in line” trying to get paid from your fine work
• We recently commented on a December 11, 2015 Florida charging lien case from Florida’s 2nd DCA called Parrish & Yarnell PA v. Spruce River Ventures LLC, 2015 WL 8519438, No. 2D14-3239

What do Clients Need to Know about a Reasonable Contingence Fee Florida?

• Let’s say that you got a substantial recovery in a probate lawsuit Florida and the lawyers want to get paid
• In fairness, your Delray Beach or Boca Raton estate lawyers should get paid according to any written fee contract
• Remember, probate lawyer fees, or estate litigation fees, MUST be “reasonable” in Florida.
• Lawyer fees must comply with the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar and the caselaw which has come down from our appellate courts
• For good or for bad, attorneys fee fights Florida or evidentiary hearings on fee contracts or contingency fees Florida have become a unique subsection of our legal practice
• Do you know how to represent someone who has an attorney fee fight ordisagreement with their Florida probate attorney over the legal fees? The rules are interesting & the procedure is likewise interesting
• But if you have or had multiple or prior lawyers, how do you deal with them if your current lawyer, say, just got a $5.3 Million recovery for you in some estate lawsuit case?
• If you are a client who hired an estate litigation Florida law firm, then  you should be upfront with your probate litigator Palm Beach, and tell them if you have paid your prior lawyers
• So, what happens if there are multiple lawyers with multiple contingency fee agreements and only one settlement, trial victory or recovery?
• See the analysis of the Anderson case, which puts the burden on the lawyers to come up with a division of contingency fee Florida, so that it complies with the Florida Bar Rules Regulating contingency fees, including Rule 4-1.5(f)(4)(D) and also the Chandris SA v. Yanakakis case, 668 So 2d 180, 186 (Fla. 1995).
• Read this November 4, 2015 Anderson case, and also consider reading the November 18, 2015 2nd DCA case of Hensley Chalfant PA v. Guardianship of Thomas D. Flannigan, 2D13-3077, 2015 WL 7273373
• All of these Florida appeals are available to be read for free on the appeals courts’ websites. Go to “Opinions” and then search by date and then by case name

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